The Omega Subject
by USB-Meister
Summary: A secretive organization working across all of Remnant has been capturing Grimm for use in experiments. However, when one certain Alpha Beowolf is captured and given the best enhancements conceived over decades of research, how couldn't they expect it to escape? With its burning prison behind it, the final test subject will show what it means to be the OMEGA: the end of everything.
1. Chapter 1: Beginnings

**I**

**Beginnings**

The cold wind of Atlas' mountain ranges whipped across a group of five men. The leader wore the white garb of an Atlesian Specialist and wielded an ornate longsword. The one directly behind him wore knightly armor, it also being the color white. In his hands was a large, single-bladed axe. He easily towered over every one else in the group. The man behind him wore similar armor, though his had some detailing in the form of a family crest: a shield with open wings in its center, the head of a lion roaring at the top of the shield. His weapon was a thick and large blade, almost the size of him as well. The fourth man wore standard looking clothes—a pair of slightly torn jeans and a white vest—but the bear ears sprouting out of the top of his head definitely stood out. Him being a bear Faunus, while normally a source of ridicule and discrimination, served him well in Atlas' harsh climate. His weapons were a pair of powerful, but plain looking, handcannons. The last man in the group was the only one with glasses, and wore a coat more welcome in a lab than on a battlefield. However, his weapon was easily the most threatening looking, being a strange gauntlet with slots for vials of Dust.

"Eryk, you said you saw the Alpha head this direction?" the Specialist asked the man behind him.

"That I did." He said as he spun the axe in his hands. "Can't wait to put him down. He's been terrorizing all of the villages around here."

"I do hope you remember that this is a _capture_ mission, yes?" the Specialist bit back. "We can't just charge in like barbarians and cleave its head off."

The man behind him huffed, but before he could shoot back at the Specialist, the Faunus suddenly pulled out his hand cannons.

"It's close." He said.

The others immediately pulled out their weapons and formed a circle. For a week now, the Specialist had been chasing down this Alpha Beowolf. Just two days ago, he managed to allocate enough funds to hire a team of Atlas graduates to join him for the capture mission. During that time, their target had constantly charged in under the cover of the blizzard and attacked. It never got in more than a glancing blow, but had constantly left them feeling drained of Aura and on edge. Speaking of the Grimm, a growl was heard nearby. The Faunus fired one of his hand cannons, the round zipping into the distance. It impacted the ground and detonated, throwing snow into the air and making the blizzard even more difficult to see through. The snow next to the Specialist shifted, and he quickly turned around and brought his hand out. A yellow crystal imbedded itself in the ground before glowing brightly. Then, it detonated in a ball of lightning. However, the Grimm was nowhere to be seen. The last member of the team, the one with the gauntlet, loaded it with vials of green Dust and held his hand into the air. With a clench of his fist, the vials emptied the powdered Dust into his gauntlet, causing green vein-like lines to appear on its surface. The wind whipping around them suddenly increased in ferocity tenfold before the snow around them scattered. It was as if they were suddenly in the eye of the storm, as it was now unnaturally calm. The wind in this dome of safety was nonexistent.

The man had used the wind Dust to create a bubble that repelled the harsh winds of the blizzard, giving them an easy to navigate battlefield. Even through the gale outside, the Grimm's growl was heard. It leaped into the calm dome and filled it with negativity. The humans plus Faunus charged the Grimm, intent on incapacitating it. The Grimm threw snow into the air and obscured itself long enough to charge around and tackle the gauntlet-wielder. The man shouted before his already weakened Aura was finally shattered. The three melee combatants charged forward as the one with the hand cannons fired. The round hit the back of the Grimm and exploded, breaking off some of its spikes. It snarled, but nonetheless buried its jaws into the man's throat. His cries became gurgles before he quickly died.

"Francis!" Eryk shouted.

Now close enough, the Specialist spun his blade before pressing a button right below the handguard. With a series of clicks, the blade separated into a whip. The Specialist lashed out with the bladed whip, wrapping it around the Alpha. The Grimm howled at the pain and charged forward on all fours. The Specialist pressed another button, and the vial of yellow Dust attached to the bottom of the hilt buried itself inside and lightning coursed through the whip. The Beowolf howled and stood up on its hind legs as it was slowly being electrocuted. The three men moved towards their teammate as the Specialist retracted the whip back into its sword form. With black smoke curling off of it, the Grimm glared at the man with a murderous intent. It stepped forward once, twice, before whimpering and falling forward, right in front of him. The crimson glow in its eyes faded with its trail and it laid there, motionless. The man smirked and sheathed his blade as he pulled out his Scroll. He called a familiar number.

"OLYMPUS, this is Specialist Verzand. Target has been incapacitated and is ready for pickup." He stated.

"Copy that, Specialist." Replied the operator, a man. "A Bullhead is enroute."

"We'll need two." The Specialist said with a grave tone. "We have one dead."

"I understand." The operator replied.

"Thank you. Verzand out." Serap finished before ending the call.

He turned to the group of three men as the knelt over their dead comrade. He slowly shook his head and looked back at the fallen beast. _How I would love to kill you right here and now._ He thought as his hand subconsciously moved towards his blade. However, with a sigh, he moved his hand back to his side. _But, the GCC has plans for you, Grimm. Big plans._ He smiled slightly as he heard the engines of two Bullheads get louder and louder. _Perhaps this is a better outcome. By the end of this, you'll wish I had killed you._

**/ / /**

The Bullhead ride to OLYMPUS was quiet. The three huntsmen had elected to ride with their dead friend, which was all the better. It would have been difficult explaining to them that they couldn't travel with their quarry. The Bullhead passed by one last mountain before finally arriving at its destination: OLYMPUS Station. The station itself was a large complex nestled within a group of mountains in Solitas' northwest corner. It was made up of three centers: S&D, Communications, and the GCRE. S&D was Storage and Distribution, where the Subjects were stored and distributed to other stations. Communications was where they kept in contact with other stations, the GCC, and Ironwood himself. The GCRE was where Serap worked, with the abbreviation meaning Grimm Control, Research, and Experimentation. That was where the bulk of the Grimm Control Program's work was done. The Grimm was taken straight to the GCRE and hurried into Testing Area 01, a large and circular room thirty meters in diameter. It was heavily reinforced and had only two access points, only one of them accessible by a land-dwelling Grimm like the Alpha. The main door had seven different locks and was guarded at all times by two squads of Atlesian Knight-130s. The door itself, however, was large enough to fit two Paladin-290s side by side. The second door was built into the flat ceiling of the testing area, and was designed to allow Bullheads to enter and exit the room.

And, slowly regaining consciousness in the center of Testing Area 01, was the Alpha Serap had just caught. He and a group of scientists were watching from a view-area with one-way glass built into the walls of the arena the Grimm was held in. From the outside, it would look just like the rest of the room. Serap himself was still wearing the uniform of a Specialist, and had his sword-whip, Superiority, on his hip. He had short, dark brown hair mostly hidden under an officer's cap. He had his hands clasped behind his back as he stared down at the slowly rising Grimm. It took a moment to survey its surroundings before sniffing the air. After sniffing for almost a minute, it slowly turned its head towards the men and women hidden behind the glass.

"It was incredible enough that it woke up already." Started a female scientist. "But to also detect us so easily, even with our countermeasures?"

Serap turned to look at the countermeasures in question. There were four boxes built into the front corners of the room: two on the floor, two on the ceiling. They looked like plain, grey boxes, but they hid a secret. They were known as Negativity Negators, and were highly experimental. They used a powering system found only in one other Atlesian program: The P.E.N.N.Y. program. The NN system was powered by a human soul. There was a master conduit, which actually held the soul, and it was hooked up via cables to the Negators spread throughout the entire station. The soul would serve the direct purpose of generating energy so positive in nature, that most Grimm couldn't even know humans were around unless they were staring right at them.

But, this Alpha had only needed a minute before it found them.

"How strange and amazing indeed." Serap finished for her. He keyed a button on a nearby console. "Begin Combat Trial One."

Klaxons blared through the station as it locked down. The lights in the GCRE turned red and the doors leading into the testing area slowly opened. The Grimm turned towards the doors and, unlike so many others, waited. Two squads of AK-130s marched in and the doors behind them closed. Once they did, the Grimm sprang into action. The androids opened fire on the Grimm, but their rounds found little purchase in its tough hide. They either pinged off its armor, missed entirely, or buried themselves less than an inch in. The Alpha grabbed two of the Knights by their heads and crashed them into each other. It dropped one and swung the other like a club, destroying a third Knight. It dropped this now mangled club and leaped at a Knight in the back of the formation. It buried its front paws into its midsection and tore the knight in half, torso and legs. The Knight's torso was grabbed in midair and lobbed at a fifth target, disemboweling the Knight. Less than two minutes in, and more than a third of the force was destroyed. The remaining seven Knights surrounded the Grimm.

Then, it seemed to smile right before it jumped straight into the air, letting the Knights shoot each other. When it landed, two more had been killed by friendly fire. It charged at one of the remaining Knights and tore its head off. As its neck sparked uselessly and its body fell to the ground, the Grimm turned around and threw the head into the chest of a Knight, burying the head inside. For a moment, the Knight seemed relatively undamaged. However, that was before it exploded. It charged at the last three Knights, which had brought themselves closer together, and jumped at them. However, rather than tackle them, it twisted in midair and buried the stumps of its spikes into them. The two parties crashed to the ground and stayed there for a moment. Then, the Alpha got back onto its feet and shook the destroyed Knights off of its spikes. It grabbed a nearby one, which was only a torso, head, and left arm, before it stood on its hind legs and held its trophy high and roared in victory. Serap looked down at the Grimm and smiled. He turned to a nearby scientist.

"Tell the medical team to prepare their tools." He said. "We just found our OMEGA Subject."

* * *

**So, here it is. My first story on FF. I decided to go into RWBY because I felt it had lots of potential fanfiction wise. As I looked through fanfic after fanfic, though, I noticed relatively few dealt with Grimm main characters, and those that did typically had them be anthropomorphized in some fashion. I'm not saying this to bash on them or belittle them (as I am currently very invested in one of said fanfics right now), but I just felt maybe it was time to look at it from a different angle. Thus, TOS was born. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing this, and if it's not too much to ask, could you review it to give criticism and such? I'm still relatively new to writing (even though this is like the third or fourth iteration of this story), so any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Trial

**II**

**The Trial**

A group of five doctors stood over an examination table. However, their patient was one unheard of by the common people: a fully shaved Grimm. Serap and a collection of scientists watched from an observation room as the doctors set about removing the shards of its bone mask buried in its face. The leading doctor spoke as they were finishing up.

"Specialist, the shards have almost been fully removed." He said. "However, it appears that one of the shards cut across its left eye, rendering it partially blind."

Serap hummed in reply.

"This would explain why most of the rounds that landed in the Grimm found their new home in its left side, as it would be less likely to see them coming."

"I understand, doctor." Serap replied. "Once you've removed the rounds and shards of its mask, I want you to determine its age."

"Yes sir."

The leading doctor returned to working with his comrades in removing the Dust rounds buried in its hide, his talk with the Specialist taking just long enough for the others to finish removing the bone shards in its face. Once the rounds were removed, the leading doctor touched one doctor on the shoulder and gestured towards a table with his head. The other doctor nodded as the first received a scalpel from a third doctor. He cut back some of the black skin just as the doctor he sent away came back with a card. The card had rectangles of varying shades of red, going from a bright crimson to a deep red. From all the medical trials they had conducted, they learned that a great way of determining a Grimm's age, aside from its size, was to look at the pigmentation of its "Red Matter", as they had taken to calling it. The darker the red matter, the older the Grimm was. The first doctor grabbed the color swatch and held it next to the red matter of the Alpha they were operating on. Serap slowly leaned forward to confirm his suspicions. He saw the leading doctor gulp before turning towards the observation deck.

"Sir…it appears that we don't have a red this dark on our swatch." The doctor stated nervously.

"Pull out the scanner." Serap ordered.

The doctor nodded as he pointed at a doctor and then pointed at a console close by. The doctor walked over and began typing away. A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling, just in reach of the first doctor. He grabbed a handle on it and positioned a strange, ovular camera right above the red matter. He gave a thumbs up towards the doctor operating the console, whom pressed a button. A loud click was heard, before the first doctor pushed the camera away.

"Sedatives." He ordered.

The doctor moved back over and they all dug into their coat pockets to pull out a case of syringes. They each removed one and took a position around the Grimm. The leading doctor was by the neck, two more were by its elbows, and the other two were by its knees. They simultaneously stabbed the needles in the Grimm and emptied its contents. They passed the needles to the doctor by its right knee and, as he moved to dispose of them, the leading doctor moved towards a television screen. It was displaying the results from the picture. The closest match to that red was from a Goliath they had captured solely for recording its age. The Goliath's red matter seemed bright in comparison to the Alpha's.

And that Goliath was only a few years shy of being a millennium old.

"Incredible…" the doctor muttered before turning towards the observers. "Sir, it appears this Alpha Beowolf is the oldest specimen we've captured. The readouts have been transferred to the science team in order to determine an age."

"Thank you, doctor. Proceed with phase two of the procedure." Serap replied.

"Yes sir." The doctor replied.

A doctor walked towards the back of the room and moved through some curtains. The other doctors stood by the Beowolf, awaiting her return. When she came back, she was wheeling in a cart with boxes, trays, and jars on it. A doctor walked over to the console once more, but instead of bringing down a strange camera, they brought down a laser. The doors leading into the examination room opened to reveal a tanned man striding in. He shook hands with each of the doctors before turning towards the observers.

"How great you could join us for this monumental point in history, doctor Watts." Serap greeted.

"Please, the pleasure is all mine, Specialist." Watts replied.

"You may begin when you're ready." Serap said.

Watts nodded in reply before turning towards the Alpha. He walked around the table and grabbed the laser. Carefully, he centered it at the back of the Beowolf's neck. With the press of a button, the laser began automatically cutting out a shape. The tunnel bored its way into the Beowolf's skull and, satisfied, Watts turned the laser off and moved it to the side. He turned towards the cart.

"Brain, please." He asked.

The female doctor that wheeled the cart in walked towards a jar and twisted off its lid. She carefully slipped her hands inside and pulled out a human brain. She walked over and handed it to Watts.

"Who was this fellow again?" Watts asked as he made his way to the incision. "An Atlesian commander, yes?"

"Indeed he was, doctor." Serap responded.

Watts hummed before slowly sliding the brain into the cavity created by the laser. After settling the brain, he fished into his coat pocket and pulled out a case of syringes. However, these did not hold sedatives. He pulled out one needle and inserted it in the red matter. He emptied its contents and hastily pulled it back out, allowing the chemical to do its work. The red matter pulsated before quickly rebuilding itself around the brain and filling the tunnel burned into it. Within two minutes, it looked as if there was never a hole to begin with. This syringe contained a chemical they referred to as "Red Matter Growth Stimulant", or RMGS. Watts never shared its secret with anyone, but did say that it kickstarted a natural healing factor Grimm possessed and then shifted it into overdrive. Once the cavity was sealed, Watts handed the emptied syringe to another doctor to dispose of it before moving towards the Beowolf's face. He opened up its mouth and turned towards the cart and opened a box. Inside it was a tool tray. He moved the box aside and placed the tool tray in an accessible location. He pulled a strange sander-looking tool off of it and pressed a button on it. It whirred to life, and its cylindrical roller spun. He turned it back off, satisfied with the test, and brought it into the Beowolf's mouth. He rested it against the upper jaw and turned it back on. It sanded away some of the red matter lining the inside of its upper jaw and turned the tool off. He put it back on the tray and held out his hand.

"Venom sac." He stated.

The female doctor fished into another jar and pulled out a venom sac. It was a fleshy sac with three separate tubules attached to it. One was a smaller tubule in the back, while the other two were longer and in the front. The rear tubule was much thicker than the front ones, which were designed to travel through teeth. She handed it to Watts and he rested it against the inside of the jaw, where he had applied the sander. He held it there with one hand as he slipped a hand into his coat pocket and pulled out the case of RMGS needles. He retrieved one and stabbed it into the matter under the sac. It bound the sac to the jaw. He handed the needle back to the doctor that disposed of the previous and turned towards the female doctor.

"Deathstalker venom."

She hovered her hand over a collection of vials before grabbing the one he requested and handed it to him. Carefully, he held it over one of the tubules and emptied its contents into the sac. He handed her the empty vial and grabbed a probe from the tool tray.

"Commencing venom test."

The doctors stood to the side as Watts held the three tubules in one hand and the probe in the other. He applied pressure to the sac, and sure enough, venom sprayed out of the tubules and onto the floor.

"Venom test is a success." Watts stated. "It's time for sedatives."

He stepped back from the table as the doctors took their positions around the Beowolf. After injecting him with the sedatives, Watts moved back towards it jaws and let the doctors dispose of their needles. He grabbed a scraping tool and scraped away a small portion of red matter by the rear tubule. He held the end of the tubule there before he placed the tool back on the tray and retrieved another RMGS needle. He emptied its contents into the scraped red matter and let it grow around the tubule. He handed the needle to a doctor and grabbed a strange drilling tool from the tray. He drilled a small tunnel through the tips of the two upper canines, and then drilled from the back of the canines into the ends of the other tunnels. Once the tunnels were completed, he placed the drill on the tray and carefully pushed the tubules through the sharp teeth. After making sure the tunnels allowed the tubules to travel all the way through the teeth, he lifted up part of the tubules and grabbed his scraping tool. He scraped away a trench under the tubules and put the tool away before grabbing another RMGS needle. He applied it to the left fang's trench and rested the tubule against it before grabbing another needle. He repeated the process with right trench, and soon, the venom sac was fully integrated into the Beowolf's system.

"My work here is almost done, ladies and gentlemen." Watts stated as he walked towards the Beowolf's chest. "Hand me Subject IOTA's remains, please."

The female doctor by the cart pulled out a jar that had the mask of a Geist resting in it. If one looked closed enough, they could see faint wisps of black smoke curling off of it. After IOTA had passed, curiously, its mask remained behind as if it was still faintly alive, somewhere in there. Watts pulled down the laser and centered it on the chest of the Beowolf. He pressed a different button on it, and it played through the program made by Watts. It carefully cut out the shape of the Geist's mask into the Grimm's chest and shut off. Watts pushed it into the ceiling and held out his hands. The woman opened the jar and let Watts retrieve the mask. He held it up for the observers to see before resting it in the chest. Thanks to the still mysterious nature of red matter, the Geist mask required no RMGS to bond. It settled and, slowly, its faded red glow began to grow brighter. Black smoke curled off of it before dissipating, signifying the bond had succeeded. Watts turned towards the observers.

"My work here is done." He said with a bow.

The observers clapped as he took off his gloves and left the room. Moments later, he opened the door into the observation room and sat down close to the Specialist.

"Thank you again, doctor Watts." Serap said as he turned to the doctor. "Your contributions to the Grimm Control Program have been nothing short of astounding."

"Hold your thanks, Specialist. My work here isn't done." Watts said as he raised his hand. "After all, the GCC still has its second phase it wants me to take part in."

The two turned back to the doctors before Serap leaned into the mic.

"Begin the final phase, doctor." He ordered.

The leading doctor nodded before walking over to the Beowolf's face.

"Bring out the enhancers." The doctor ordered.

The female doctor by the cart opened another box and pulled out a tray of five needles. They were labeled "SE", "OE", "OlE", "AE", and "EE".

"Sedatives." The doctor ordered.

They all fished into their coats and retrieved the next to last set of needles. They injected them in the normal places and were disposed of before the leading doctor grabbed the SE needle. He moved over to the Beowolf's chest and injected the needle at the border of the Geist mask. He emptied its contents and handed the needle off before moving back to the cart and grabbing the OE needle. He also grabbed a set of eyedrops and carefully squirted them into the Beowolf's eyes. This would numb them enough that the Grimm wouldn't even react to the needle. He carefully injected measured amounts marked on the syringe, so as to not have one eye be stronger than the other. Due to its partial blindness, the left eye required more of the enhancer in order to be on par with the right. He handed the OE needle off after injecting it and retrieved the OlE needle. He injected it directly into the snout of the Beowolf. He handed the needle off and retrieved the AE needle. Making sure to follow the measurements on it, he injected half of it directly beneath the right ear and half of it beneath the left. He handed off the needle and retrieved the last one, the EE needle. He moved back to the Grimm mask and emptied its contents on the other side of it as the SE needle. He handed the needle off and stepped back.

"The enhancers have been injected. Wheel in the spike donor." He ordered.

A pair of Atlesian soldiers walked through the curtain with a cage between them, holding a sedated Ursa Major. They unfortunately did not have the time to capture another Alpha Beowolf, so they had to settle for one of the Ursa Majors in Storage and Distribution. One of its spikes was sawn off by the leading doctor and brought over to the Alpha. However, it refused to bond with the stumps. He disposed of the spike and motioned for the soldiers to take the Ursa back out. They nodded and wheeled the cage back out, and came back in moments later with a new cart. This one had multiple metal spikes on it, fashioned and painted to look like the originals. They had planned around such a setback and premade these artificial spikes. The spikes were slotted over the stumps and the few natural spikes left. Then, an engineer came in and bolted the spikes into place. Once that was done, the soldiers and engineer left the room and took the cart with them.

"Sedatives." The leading doctor ordered.

The doctors all took their places one last time and injected the final set of sedatives. The needles were disposed of and the leading doctor pulled down the laser and centered it over the center of the Beowolf's forehead. He pressed a button on it, and went to work on the final step of the procedure: branding. It burned in a symbol on the Beowolf's faceplate: the Ohm, symbol of the last letter of the ancient Sanusian alphabet. Then, it ran over the burned symbol with an air hose, blasting away any stray chips. It followed through again with a jet of water to round off the symbol. Finally, it ran over it, very closely and slowly, with red dye. The laser moved back and shut off, knowing its job was complete. The leading doctor pushed it into the ceiling and they all turned towards the observers.

"The procedure is complete. The OMEGA Subject should wake up in approximately five hours, and he will need another hour to recuperate before he is back at peak performance." The leading doctor stated.

"Well done, doctors. You may all leave." Serap replied.

The doctors saluted and left the room, and not even a minute after they had left, soldiers walked in and deactivated a lock underneath the table. They wheeled the examination table out of the room and into the corridors of the GCRE, hurrying towards Testing Area 01. Serap turned to Watts.

"Thank you once again, doctor Watts." The Specialist congratulated.

"Oh, you haven't seen everything yet, Specialist." Watts replied. "Believe me."

They all turned and left the observation room, unaware that they had just created the death of them all. They had forgotten just what it meant to be the Omega. Yes, it meant the last in line, the ultimate in a series.

But, it also meant to be the end of everything.

* * *

**So, chapter two is now a thing. Honestly, I never expected to have a favorite or follow this early on, especially two! So, ARangeroftheOrder and DimondDog, you two have my sincerest thanks, as well as everyone one of you that's taken the time to read this story! Really, you guys don't know how warm this makes me feel right now! That being said, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and once again, I ask that you give reviews to tell me how I'm doing and if there's anything I should change! Also, I'll be willing to answer any and all questions, but in no way will I spoil the story. Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3: Retribution

**III**

**Retribution**

Pain. That was the thought that entered the Beowolf's head as it noticed it was no longer in its circular prison. It slowly opened one of its eyes to find itself bound to a table, being led through the halls of its much larger prison by a group of humans. Anger. None of the soldiers noticed it had moved. It slowly brought one of its claws to the strap binding it at the pelvis. Slowly, ever so slowly, it began to saw away. Revenge. The strap was weak enough now to break. Though, that didn't help its arms and legs. Or its neck, now that it felt the chafing leather around its throat. It waited and waited for an opportune time to strike. When it saw they were in a large, open room, it made its move. It broke free of the main strap and snarled as it tried to wrench itself free of the ones around its arms and neck.

"Sir, the Subject is awake!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"Oum damn it!" The leader replied. "Double time it to Tee-Ay oh-one!"

The soldiers moved even faster through the room. Its window of opportunity was closing. Then, it felt it. Snap! The strap around its left arm was broken. It reached out and grabbed the soldier close by and slammed his face into the table, pulverizing it.

"Shit!" One of the remaining soldiers said as he backed away and reached for his pistol.

The others stepped back as the one in the lead pulled out a strange metal rectangle with glass in its center. The Alpha brought is arm up and cut away the restraint on its neck. It snarled and roared as it finally broke away from the restraint on its right arm. It felt weak Dust rounds ping off its armor and bury themselves in its hide, but that only made it angrier. It reached down and broke its leg restraints. It jumped and repositioned itself on the table. It turned towards the one in charge.

"Sir! The OMEGA Subject has woken up! It's-"

**/ / /**

Serap grimaced as he heard the cry of pain coming out of the Scroll. He ended the call and slammed his hand down on the large red button on his desk. Klaxons sounded as the lights turned red. He activated the PA system.

"Attention all GCP personnel! The OMEGA Subject has breached containment! I repeat, the OMEGA Subject has breached containment! All armed units, report to Testing Area zero-one!" He shouted. "Evacuation protocol Alpha is now in effect! Evacuation protocol Alpha!"

He darted out of his chair and grabbed Superiority on his way out of his office. He held it tightly as he marched through the halls. Soldiers and personnel being evacuated rushed by, not even bothering him with a salute. He heard metallic footsteps and glanced over his shoulder to see his escort of AK-130s. They followed him as he made his way towards the medical wing. His first priority in protocol Alpha was reaching the more important members of the GCP: the doctors and scientists. When he arrived in the medical wing, however, he saw that the doctors and nurses had all been killed. And, standing amongst them in his normal clothing, was Arthur Watts.

"Ah, Specialist. How good you could make it," he replied coolly. "I thought you were going to make my job harder and force me to find you."

The Knights circled around Watts as Serap readied his sword.

"I should have known it was too easy getting you in the Project, Watts," Serap said. "But why? Why spend all this time, all this effort, only to betray us?"

"Oh, can't you see?" Watts asked. "I wanted to make the most powerful living weapon possible."

He pulled out his Scroll and tapped a few buttons. The Knights sparked before collapsing to the ground. He pocketed the Scroll.

"That, and my Mistress felt you outlived your usefulness."

**/ / /**

How strange. Thought the Beowolf as the tall, metal soldier it was fighting suddenly fell to the ground. It twitched and sparked before finally dying. Of course, that wasn't the only thing on the Beowolf's mind. A more pressing matter in its mind was the fact that it had one now. It found it strange that the humans would give it a mind. It also felt stronger than it had previously, faster and smarter as well. It saw other Grimm as it moved through its prison, most with strange things like it. Creeps, Ursai, Beowolves, Gryphons, and even a Deathstalker were all present. The Alpha could care less about them at the moment, however. It only cared about returning to freedom. It eventually found the scent of the outside and followed it throughout the prison, killing any humans in its way. What was strange to the Beowolf was that most of the humans it ran into didn't have any weapons on them. It didn't mind, though. That only made its task of escaping all the easier. When the Grimm finally found the doors that led to its freedom, there stood a man in the way. The Grimm growled, but stopped itself from pouncing when it smelled the man. He smelled of Her.

"Apollyon." The man said. "That is your name, now."

He pressed a button on a nearby console and the door groaned before slowly sliding open.

"And OMEGA…is your title. Come," he ordered. "Allow me to take you to your Mother."

The got the Grimm's attention. Normally, he could care less about what humans said to him, but this man spoke of Her. Apollyon followed the man towards a strange metal craft. He recognized it as one of those things the humans used to move around the skies like Nevermores and Gryphons. Apollyon felt some pride, as he had taken down one of the strange contraptions before, and while it was still flying. The doors opened and revealed another human. This one was a woman with a scarlet dress and long black hair. Curiously, she also smelled of Her.

"Arthur," she greeted. "Is this the Subject?"

"Indeed he is, Cinder," the man, now known as Arthur, replied.

"Good," Cinder said as she stepped to the side.

Arthur stepped in and looked back at Apollyon. The Grimm was hesitant.

"It's quite alright, Apollyon," Arthur said. "This will take you to your Mother."

Still, Apollyon was hesitant. He didn't trust this thing in the slightest. However, he dearly wanted to see his Mother. So, he tentatively stepped on board. The doors shut, causing Apollyon to growl. He felt trapped again. The craft shuddered before taking to the skies. Cinder and Arthur sat on benches. They were plagued by some minutes of silence before she turned to the man.

"So, Arthur…tell me about this OMEGA Subject," she started.

"Well, he has a name now, so I'd suggest you call him by it," Arthur replied. "Do you not realize how much planning went into procuring him?"

Cinder rolled her eyes.

"I would prefer to hear what makes him so special today, Arthur."

Arthur sighed.

"Apollyon here, for starters, is far older than any other Grimm that's entered the GCC's hands," he said.

Before Cinder could reply, a large boom resounded and shook the craft.

"Ah, that must be OLYMPUS' self-destruct sequence," Arthur stated. "Back to the topic at hand. Apollyon is ancient, far more than most Grimm around."

He smirked.

"So ancient, in fact, that we only have a rough estimate to his age," he said. "I looked over the report myself: at minimum, he is at least two millennia old."

"That certainly explains his size." Cinder said.

"Only most of it," Arthur replied. "The strength enhancer we gave him also added at least two inches to his height."

"Did you give him any other…enhancers?" Cinder asked.

"Yes. One boosts his endurance, which also allows growth of more natural armoring. However, that won't pop up for some weeks now. Another boosts his sense of smell, another his hearing, and another his eyesight," Arthur continued. "Though, due to some combat injuries, his left eye was partially blind. Was being the keyword here, as our enhancer healed his eye. However, a cost of this was that his eyesight could not be boosted as much as we had hoped."

"What else has he been given?" Cinder asked.

"During the capture phase of our operation, he received enough punishment to remove eighty-seven percent of his spikes. So, we had to design and create metal replacements for them, in case the Ursa Major spike transplants didn't work. Which they didn't, unfortunately," Arthur said. "He has also received a venom sac, which allows him to both spray venom and inject it into foes. The most powerful weapon in his arsenal, though, is the Geist mask within his chest."

Arthur pointed to the mask in question.

"It is all that remains of Subject IOTA, though he still seems to be alive. After doing as much research as I could, I concluded that this should give Apollyon the ability to turn his body gaseous, much like a normal Geist's. Though, this remains untested." Arthur stated. "And, lastly, he has the brain of a human."

Arthur pulled out the strange metal rectangle that Apollyon had seen another human use and pulled up an image of a human. The image was of a smiling man with startling pink eyes. He had neat black hair hidden under a cap and a white uniform with multiple shiny medals on it.

"Captain Oswald Roseus of the Atlesian Navy. He was famed for his amazingly efficient combat maneuvers, but was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for the rather high friendly mortality rate his strategies had," Arthur said before pocketing the device. "He was found dead soon after, White Fang insurgents having shot down his Bullhead as it took him down to Atlas."

He seemed sad for a moment.

"Though, with all the expenses it took to get Apollyon into the state he's in currently, we unfortunately could not give him the vocal cords most other Subjects have," Watts informed her. "Aside from that admittedly small downside, Apollyon is by far the most advanced and powerful of the Subjects."

Cinder looked at Apollyon.

"I see," she said. "Speaking of the other Subjects, tell me, Arthur: what of your other pet projects?"

"The other Subjects have not made as much success as Apollyon here," Arthur replied. "Unfortunately, we have confirmed the deaths of the BETA, GAMMA, DELTA, THETA, IOTA, MU, SIGMA, and PHI Subjects. The OMEGA is with us right now, the ALPHA is still with Salem, and I recently sent Tyrian out to bring back the KAPPA. That leaves the EPSILON, ZETA, ETA, LAMBDA, NU, XI, OMICRON, PI, RHO, TAU, UPSILON, CHI, and PSI Subjects unaccounted for. Though, at OLYMPUS, we had TAU, UPSILON, CHI, and PSI stored in chambers close to Apollyon."

He shook his head.

"I will need to look through the camera feeds I had downloaded to my Scroll to see how many of them escaped after us."

As the two talked, Apollyon felt a strange feeling within him. It made him struggle to keep his eyes open, and he felt a general desire to do nothing. His mouth opened without his consent and he let out a strange sound, drawing the attention of the two humans. He moved from his sitting position into one where he lied down on the ground and rested his head on his paws. His eyes finally closed, and he felt strangely calm before he fell asleep.

**/ / /**

"Is Apollyon…asleep?" Cinder asked.

"Yes," Arthur replied. "Unfortunately, Grimm do not naturally produce enough energy to use a brain all the time. Thus, they develop sleeping cycles. Over time, though, the body will naturally compensate for these new energy demands. Within two to three months, he should no longer need sleep. But, if he so desires, he can still sleep."

"I suppose that makes sense," Cinder replied.

The two waited in silence as the Bullhead continued on its flight to the Grimmlands. Thankfully, OLYMPUS was built close to its northernmost wing. However, that still gave them close to a day of nonstop flying until they reached their destination.

And, frankly, neither could stand being so close to the other for so long.

* * *

**Chapter three. Oh boy. Before I get into my own personal feeling of unease with the chapter, I want to say thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. You are all blessings and I just can't find a way to say this in mere words. But, onto my personal gripe with the chapter. I...don't know what it is, but something about how I wrote this chapter is just rubbing me the wrong way. I feel like it's of a lesser quality than the last two, but I've read it over and over again and can't find what it is making me feel like this.**

**That aside, I want to hear your thoughts on the story so far. Any questions you might have (such as about procedures, lore, specific details I might've left out, etc.) can be asked with reviews, and I will do my best to answer them without giving spoilers. So, please, ask questions, give criticisms, tell me how I'm doing, and the like. Thanks!**

**P.S. 100+ views?! That's amazing! Thank you guys so much for the milestone!**


	4. Intermission 1: Update, Hiatus, Q&A

**So, guys, a little update. Firstly, I want to apologize for the general lack of content. My personal life has been busy recently, what with graduation and vacation plans, so I haven't been able to get as much writing done as I wanted. Speaking of vacation plans, I am going to be inactive until around mid-June, so yeah... sorry. But, I want to give you guys _something_ before I left, so here I am, at 10:36 PM local time, typing out something to give myself some comfort in not starving you guys of content. But, before that, it's time for some shameless self promotion. I have a DeviantArt account (USB-Meister) that I post to whenever I'm starting a new project. The posts will typically consist of teasers for new stories, some side-info that's not really fit for FF posting, and even some early chapters BEFORE they go live on FF. So, yeah, go check that out if you want. That being said, thank you guys so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following TOS. So, enjoy these little snippets of lore and miscellaneous stuff. Hopefully.**

**Oh, also, when I get back, I'll be answering any questions you guys have posted on this chapter. So, Q&A too, I guess?**

* * *

**Grimm Control Council Dossier on All Phase 1 Subjects**

Subject: ALPHA – Ashema, Beowolf

Status: Deployed, serving Doctor Arthur Watts

Subject: BETA – Arma Gigas, several Grimm species

Status: KIA

Subject: GAMMA – Rakshasa, Ursa

Status: KIA

Subject: DELTA – Gadreel, Ursa Major

Status: KIA

Subject: EPSILON – Saleos, Creep

Status: MIA, Location Unknown

Subject: ZETA – Seir, Lancer

Status: MIA, Last Location: Lake Matsu

Subject: ETA – Pythia, Lancer Queen

Status: MIA, Last Location: Lake Matsu

Subject: THETA – Halphas, Griffon

Status: KIA

Subject: IOTA – Paimon, Geist

Status: Presumed KIA

Subject: KAPPA – Mammon, Boarbatusk

Status: MIA, Location Unknown

Subject: LAMBDA – Abraxas, Seer

Status: MIA, Location Unknown

Subject: MU – Abezeth, Sea Feilong

Status: MIA, Last Location: Menagerie Coast

Subject: NU – Gremory, King Taijitu

Status: MIA, Location Unknown

Subject: XI – Molech, Nevermore

Status: MIA, Location Unknown

Subject: OMICRON – Aeshma, Manticore

Status: MIA, Location Unknown

Subject: PI – Eligos, Goliath

Status: MIA, Location Unkown

Subject: RHO – Sabnock, Apathy

Status: Deployed, Field Testing Area "Brunswick"

Subject: SIGMA – Eisheth, Beringel

Status: KIA

Subject: TAU – Naamah, Deathstalker

Status: MIA, Last Location: City of Atlas

Subject: UPSILON – Valac, Creep

Status: KIA

Subject: PHI – Lechies, Sphinx

Status: KIA

Subject: CHI – Gusion, Ursa Major

Status: KIA

Subject: PSI – Hauras, Creep

Status: KIA

Subject: OMEGA – Apollyon, Alpha Beowolf

Status: MIA, Location Unkown

* * *

**The Projects**

**A list of the other stories I've been writing on the side of this one**

ADA/HUD

AEGHW

AOJ:ASWS

AoR

C:R

DA

DoR

MoaP-DN

OLaR

RotR

SM

TBK

TBR

TE

TOS (This one)

TOS: EaM (The planned sequel)

TSG

* * *

**Fun Facts about TOS**

\- So, originally, I actually planned this to be called **The Omega Project**, because I only ever planned on Apollyon at first. But then, I started thinking about "what if there were more?". Then, I started creating some lore, looking into RWBY stuff, and eventually started creating my own little AU. Thus, the Grimm Control Project was born, and with it, the Grimm Control Council: a shady organization of politicians, entrepreneurs, and ex-military personnel that decided to win the war against the Grimm a different way. I like to think of them like the SCP Foundation of this little RWBY AU, but far more immoral. Yes, they "Secure, Contain, Protect", but they also "Experiment, Kill, Deceive", so, yeah.

\- Funny story. I, uh...I finished TOS. Well, TOP, that is. Then, I started writing TOP: EaB, and sorta...burned out? Yeah, burned out. I gave some thought, decided "well this is all a steaming pile of shit anyway" and completely trashed the entire story and sequel. Then, I tried rewriting TOP into TOS, and started building into the GCP and GCC lore. I trashed that one too after...four chapters, I think? *checks TOP v2 doc* Eleven chapters?! How the hell?... Well, I got decently far into it, and decided that it sucked too. Now, enter the TOS going here. Loosely based around what happened in both TOP and TOP v2 (technically TOS v1, as the name had changed, but myeh), but given its own little spices. Here's to hoping this one isn't a steaming pile of shit either.

\- My whole writing hobby started with me watching my sister type. She isn't active on the site, but her writing is still really good. She wants to be an author, but that isn't the point. And, funnily enough, guess what we were both watching the absolute hell of at the time: RWBY. It started as a little thing I'd do to make her happy, but I slowly started getting invested in the show. Now, here I am, contributing to the FNDM in my own little way. TOS wasn't even my first jab at writing. Believe it or now, that was OLaR (which is now in v3, probably soon to be v4). I continued writing for a couple years before finally settling on TOS becoming an obsession, almost. I can't really remember what got me to do it. Maybe it was my sudden rekindling for the SCP Mythos. Maybe it was RWBY starting up again, and with it getting more gritty and bloody. However, I never had a lot of time to write. Eventually, though, I actually just...stopped writing TOS for almost a full year. But, I eventually started reading this fic called "RWBY: A grimm fate" by crusader76, and I remember that I tried doing something like that. I dug through my files, and found what I was looking for: "TOP (COMPLETE, SCRAPPED, SEE TOS).doc", "TOP-EaB (SCRAPPED).doc", and "TOS (TOP v2).doc". Then I facepalmed myself and started TOS v3 after reading them all.

* * *

**Plans**

**So, here are my plans following this hiatus.**

**Step 1: Post new chapter of TOS.**

**Step 2: Tease new story on DA (under USB-Meister).**

**Step 3: After looking over everything, reading critiques (if there are any), and making some final edits (if needed), I'll put TOS (maybe after adding a new chapter or two) on hiatus and begin posting for the new, teased story.**

**Step 4: After going as far as I can for the new story, I'll then switch back to TOS. This will continue until either finish, then I will focus all my efforts on the other.**

**Step 5: Once both are finished, I'll...branch out. Yeah, that's the term. Branch out. Something new will be coming in (teased on DA, of course).**

**Step 6: After going some way in with the new story (#3), I'll tease again on DA about the TOS sequel. Because I definitely want TOS to be separated into more than one fic. I just feel it'll get messy putting everything into one single fic and also this will (in my mind) make it look cooler. Like, _Whoa, this guy wrote a sequel? That's really cool and professional and...stuff. Yeah. Go you._**

**That being said, that concludes this little update. Again, feel free to favorite, follow, review, and do whatever you want. I strongly suggest reading RWBY: A grimm fate. It's a good story (in my opinion), and who knows, maybe it'll inspire one you? Don't forget, this is also going to be a Q&A, so post any questions you have regarding TOS. I hope you enjoyed the story so far, and I once again apologize for being so quiet for so long. I dropped the ball on this one.**

**God damn, it's 12:20 AM now. I should sleep. Probably. Ehhhh...**


	5. Chapter 4: The Reunion

**IV**

**The Reunion**

When the Bullhead finally landed, Apollyon's eyes shot open as he jumped to his feet, startling the other two passengers. His head darted back and forth, surveying the interior of their Bullhead. One minute he was resting his head, and the next, he had blacked out. Thankfully, Apollyon managed to force himself awake after what seemed like moments. What he didn't know, however, was that he had actually been asleep for several hours. The doors of the Bullhead opened and revealed a familiar purple, red, and black hellscape. He jumped out of the Bullhead and looked around. Finally, he was home. He could scarcely believe it. He quickly bounded for the familiar and ever-present castle that watched over it all and found he was right in front of it already. He climbed up the steps and came face to face with the obstacle that always prevented him from seeing his Mother: a pair of doors. His millennia of living on Remnant and hunting humans had never once prepared him to open these doors. He pawed against them, and saw that they would not push open. He remembered that in his prison, some doors slid apart. He pried his claws between the doors and pulled to the sides, only to see them refuse to budge once more. He heard a chuckle and turned around to see Arthur, Cinder, and a third human. The human was female too, but had darker skin and green hair. It was Arthur that chuckled.

"Allow me," he said as he walked over.

Apollyon stepped to the side as Arthur grabbed the strange metal protrusions on the door and pulled, allowing the doors to swing open. Apollyon mentally chastised himself for not thinking doors could open like that before trotting into the castle. He took in the black surroundings and felt at ease. The humans followed him in, but kept their distance. He soon found himself in the large room that overlooked the section of the Pits he was born in, and standing at the other end of the room was none other than his Mother: Salem. She heard his claws against the smooth floor and turned to him. Apollyon quickened his pace and made his way to her. He sat down in front of Her and let Her run Her hand through his light coat, it having not fully grown back yet.

"Finally, you have returned to see your dearest Mother, after so long," Salem said in a soft voice.

Her hand moved to the side of his face, and he nudged into her comforting touch. Unbeknownst to him, a faint red energy left her fingertips and coursed over him.

"Speak, if you would," she whispered.

_Home_, he replied.

Rather than speaking like most others would, he responded telepathically. Of course, at the time, he did not know what it meant to project one's thoughts into another's head, so he just believed he was speaking.

"Yes. You are home," she replied. "I trust my agents kept you safe on your journey back?"

_Yes_, he answered.

"Good, good," she said while turning to Arthur and the two women. "Arthur, I trust your efforts are going well to recover the other Subjects?"

"Unfortunately not, ma'am," Watts replied, causing Salem to scowl. "In order to prevent word getting out to other GCP stations, I had to initiate a self-destruct sequence on OLYMPUS. There was only one Subject to make it out of the station aside from Apollyon here: Naamah, the TAU Subject. Her whereabouts are currently unknown."

"You know how much I dislike failure, Doctor," Salem stated with a cold tone. "However, perhaps I can let this one…slide, considering what you've said Apollyon is capable of."

She turned back to the Grimm.

"Apollyon, I have a task for you," she said.

_What is it?_ He asked.

"I want you to accompany Cinder on her mission to Vale. There, you will treat her orders as mine," she said. "Am I understood?"

_Yes, Mother_, Apollyon replied.

"Good," Salem said before turning to Cinder. "Cinder, you are to leave at once for Vale. You know your mission."

"I will not fail you." Cinder replied with a bow.

Apollyon got up from his sitting position and walked over to Cinder. She led him through the large doors and back out into the Grimmlands. She stepped into the Bullhead, Apollyon not far behind her. As he sat down, he saw that two other humans were accompanying them. One was the green-haired girl, and the other was a boy with silver hair. He forced a growl back down his throat and sat at the back of the transport.

"So, we're taking the dog with us?" The boy asked.

This time, Apollyon let the growl out.

_Watch your tongue, boy_, He stated, causing the boy to stiffen.

He slowly turned to look at the Grimm. He looked between Apollyon and Cinder.

"Is something wrong, Mercury?" Cinder asked with a knowing smirk.

"I…" he raised a finger, but promptly lowered it. "Ya know what? Forget it."

Mercury, as he was called, sat down. A chuckle was heard from the front of the Bullhead.

"What, you knew too?" Mercury asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did." The girl responded. "That'll show you to run your mouth. After all, I'm sure Apollyon could easily take your place."

Apollyon could feel anger wafting off of the boy, and the Grimm found himself smiling as best he could. The doors closed and the Bullhead took to the skies. All the while, Apollyon began thinking that humans weren't all that bad.

They could serve as greater sources of amusement than he thought.

**/ / /**

A full day of flying had passed before they arrived in Vale. They had made a quick stop in a town further away to rest. As they drew closer to their destination, Apollyon was mesmerized by his surroundings. He felt a strange feeling course within him, and walked towards the pilot.

_What…are those?_ He asked.

The girl jumped slightly in her seat, and glanced over at him.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

_The green columns that cover the ground._

The girl looked across the vast sea of green and turned back to him.

"You mean…trees?"

_If that is what they are called, yes._

The girl smirked.

"Wait, you've never seen trees before?"

_The Land of Darkness and the snowy mountains do not have these_, Apollyon answered. _What are…trees?_

"They're plants. They won't attack you or anything, but they are very important." Emerald answered. "As you know, everything that lives breathes, right?"

_Yes_.

"Well, trees breathe like us, but what they breathe in and out is different." She stated. "They breathe in what we breathe out, and breathe out what we breathe in. They need us to live, and we need them."

_How…strange_, Apollyon replied.

"To a Grimm, maybe," the girl replied. "But to us, it's just natural."

_Do they live like a human or Grimm, as well?_ Apollyon asked, feeling that strange feeling grow larger.

"Well, that's a difficult question to answer," she stated. "Some would argue they're not much different than us. They have arms and legs in a sense, they breathe, they grow, they give birth, and they die. I, however, just view them as plants: they're important, but I couldn't care less about cutting them down in the middle of a fight."

"Emerald, if you're done talking with Apollyon here, you could land us in the clearing down there," Cinder joined in from the back.

"Y-yes ma'am!" Emerald quickly replied before angling the ship down to the ground.

Apollyon turned back to Cinder and saw an amused grin on her face. She beckoned him closer and whispered into his ear.

"Fear is a powerful tool to use, Apollyon," she advised. "It keeps those weaker than you compliant. I suggest you learn how to use it."

_I see_, he agreed.

The craft landed and the doors opened. Cinder pointed outside.

"This is the Emerald Forest. It stretches from far beyond here and funnels directly into the city itself," she explained. "However, you are never to enter the city. It would be far too dangerous for you, especially at this early stage of our plans."

She looked back at Apollyon.

"Am I understood?"

_Yes, Cinder_, he replied.

"Good. Until I contact you, stay in the forest and do what you wish. If you want, you may even attack some villages," she added.

He smiled wickedly.

_Thank you._

He trotted out of the craft and took in the scents around him. He heard the doors close and turned to see the craft fly off. He looked back at the forest ahead of him and began to explore. The first item on his agenda was to find a lair to call his own.

**/ / /**

Apollyon took up shelter in a small cave after searching for an hour. There weren't many large Grimm around. There was the occasional Ursa Major, but nothing larger. He had, however, found a human village to attack. It was small and relatively undefended, only having low walls and a few guards posted on them. He stayed in the shade produced by the trees and studied the town until the moon rose. In total, six guards patrolled the tops of the walls, all armed with rifles. Every few hours, they would switch out with another set of six guards. Their body armor was also cheap, protecting only the chest and shoulders. They did wear helmets on top, but they looked just as flimsy. When the next switch began, he made his way to the closest part of the wall. He crouched at the bottom of it and waited. When he saw a guard above him, he began his attack. He leaped up the wall in a single bound and grabbed the man by his shoulder and throat. He couldn't even scream before Apollyon's jaw clamped around his throat and tore through it. Apollyon swiftly tossed the man down the wall and towards the forest before sprinting down it. He came across the next defender and managed to take him down quietly as well, punching his claws through the man's spine and chest. The third one heard him at the last second during the charge, but couldn't react in time to prevent his head getting smashed against the wall and pulverized. Apollyon flicked the brain matter and blood off of his claws before continuing on. The fourth guard was a Faunus and heard him before he could reach her. She fired off her rifle and shouted, but the small rounds pinged off of Apollyon's armor. She couldn't hope to slow down the Grimm and paid the price of her courage with her life.

Apollyon batted her head off her shoulders and sent her body down to the forest floor. Now, though, the town was alerted. He managed to reach the wall's fifth defender before the alarm bells started ringing. The guard managed to empty an entire magazine into Apollyon, with some of the rounds burying not even an inch into the Grimm's flesh, but died much like his compatriots. Apollyon continued down the wall and quickly saw that two of the guards had united and pointed their guns at him. Apollyon pounced at them and grabbed them both by their necks. He held them into the air for a moment before slamming their faces into each other and throwing them down into the forest. He had to be fast. There were still three more defenders on the wall to deal with and then there was the town. He sprinted his way down the wall, intent on finishing off the remaining defenders. However, he was shocked to see that there were more than three riflemen before him. There were five normal riflemen and one that held a larger rifle and had heavier armor. The helmet had a faceplate that hid his face completely from the Grimm. They all pointed their weapons.

"Open fire!" The armored one ordered.

They all unleashed a torrent of bullets at Apollyon, and he felt something build within him. His muscles relaxed and he felt lighter. He felt the bullets pass through him, but no pain followed. He looked down at himself and noticed that, instead of being solid, he looked like he was made of smoke more than anything. His spikes and armor gave off white smoke, whereas his coat and hide gave off the typical black smoke. The guards stopped firing after a minute had passed and were shocked.

"What?" Asked one near the back.

"How's that possible?!" Asked another.

"Stand your ground!" The one in charge commanded.

Apollyon tensed and felt the smoke disappear. He grinned as best as a Grimm could and roared before charging the group. The armored one hadn't emptied his magazine and opened fire once more, but it was useless. Apollyon bobbed and weaved between the rounds and grabbed the rifle before breaking it. He stabbed one of its ends into his neck before throwing the other at a nearby soldier. The commander screamed and gurgled as blood rushed out of his neck, while the recipient of the tossed section shouted in pain. Apollyon shoved the commander to the ground before grabbing one of the other soldiers. He used him as a shield as another one opened fire, just in time to riddle his comrade in Dust bullets. Apollyon tossed the meat shield at his killer and heard a shout. He turned to see one charging him with a sword. He parried the sword strike with one of his claws and picked the man up. He broke the man's spine over the wall before tossing him aside. There were only two defenders left. One was wheezing from some broken ribs incurred by the thrown rifle, and the other was shaking. The one wheezing opened fire, but found the rounds doing nothing. Apollyon charged forward and slammed the man into the wall, killing him instantly. The last one dropped his rifle and ran. Apollyon grabbed the sword on the newly dead's back and threw it, scoring a perfect hit on the coward's spine. He fell to the ground and slid to a halt, dead.

Apollyon hopped onto a nearby roof and looked at the town. The militia had gather and were watching the gates, ready for any Grimm foolish enough to break in. In reality, however, they were the fools.

They were expecting a mere Grimm to be attacking, not the likes of Apollyon.

* * *

**Hey guys, I finally released chapter four! You know,a few days late...**

**Yeah, sorry about that. Some family visited and then plans came up and I became incredibly busy incredibly fast. However, in order to make up for that, I'm prepared to upload not one, but _two_ chapters of TOS! In one day! Yeah, I know! Awesome! They'll be released one right after the other, as well, just so you don't have to wait between them.**

**Oh, and 300+ views?! What the hell?!**

**I hope you enjoy, and I really hope you Review, tell me how I'm doing, and tell how I can improve! Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 5: Introductions

**V**

**Introductions**

Apollyon jumped down into a small alley and landed close to one of the defensive lines. It had more of the armored soldiers, but was still no match for his enhanced might. He listened in on a conversation one of the commander's was having on her metal device.

"We're all clear at the North Gate, sir," she said. "How are things at your end? Over."

"Our gate's rumbling. Pretty sure some Grimm were drawn in," the man on the other side replied. "Shouldn't be too many. We've also got the huntsman over here, so all's good. Over."

"Understood, keep me updated. Over and out," the woman finished before ending the conversation by folding in her device. She turned to the soldiers around her. "Some Grimm were drawn in to South. Keep your eyes peeled for some unwelcome visitors here."

The soldiers continued to keep their guns on the gate and looked around. Apollyon saw it was possible to flank them, and did so. He slinked out of the alley and slowly made his way around them. He saw he had a perfect angle on the commanding gunner. He pounced and tackled her to the ground. She cried out and drew all of her soldiers' attentions just in time for them to see her head get ripped off. He tossed the head to the side and roared into the air as loud as he could. The soldiers opened fire on him as he used his smoky ability again. One of them pulled out one of those devices, no doubt to contact that man. Apollyon charged right at him.

"Sir! We've got a Grimm over here! He came outta nowhe-AGH!" the soldier got out before he was his arm was ripped off by a now solid Apollyon.

Apollyon beat him over the head with the arm, breaking it. The man fell to the ground and dropped his device. Apollyon turned around and slaughtered the rest of the troops nearby. He turned back to the disarmed man and slowly stalked towards him. The man fumbled for his device and pointed it at Apollyon. A red light appeared on it, causing Apollyon to flinch. However, to his surprise, nothing came of it. He continued stalking forward as the soldier crawled back. Growing tired of it, Apollyon charged forward and slammed his fist into the man's skull, crushing it. Apollyon looked back down at the device and eyed it curiously. He leaned in and tapped it with his claw. It didn't react. He growled at it and picked it up. He didn't like how it refused to acknowledge him. He peered deep into it and eventually gave up. He tossed it aside and heard hurried footsteps. He turned to see a group of soldiers smaller than the one he had just fought. They all opened fire immediately, but were killed off even faster than the ones defending this North Gate, as the woman called it. As the last soldier fell to the ground dead, he heard a last pair of footsteps. The Grimm looked up to see a lone human approaching him. It was a tall male with strange armor. The word that entered Apollyon's mind was oriental. He didn't know where it came from, but seemed fitting for a strange reason. It was made of wood and leather, and also seemed to have some scale-like material on its rectangular shoulders and a strange collection of equally rectangular plates around the hip. The man had a large blade, easily almost as large as him. It had a curve to it, which the Grimm got to see on full display as the man slowly unsheathed it.

The warrior held the sword in front of him and looked at the Grimm.

"Creature of darkness, your slaughter ends now," he said calmly. "By my blade, you shall fall."

The man charged forward and prepared to swing his sword horizontally. Apollyon jumped over the swing and landed behind the man, slashing across his back with his claws. To Apollyon's surprise, a white barrier rose in defiance to his attack. This was no soldier: this was a warrior. Apollyon growled lowly as he stepped back and studied his opponent. The warrior did the same as they circled each other. Apollyon charged first and turned into smoke as the man swung. His curved sword cut through the smoke, but he was surprised to see Apollyon pass around him and reform at his back. He turned around and raised his blade to block the two large paws crashing down on him. He held the Beowolf back for some moments, but felt it overpowering him. Apollyon shoved the man into the ground with a roar and began slashing all over his opponent's torso. The vibrant white slowly grew dimmer before the man pushed him back. Apollyon's claws scraped against the stone path and he watched with a smile as his opponent unsteadily stood before him. The man breathed in and out before pressing a button on the strap going over his chest. The sheath on his back fell and he quickly grabbed it. He attached the sheath to the hilt of his blade and the weapon hummed as the parts connected. He lowered his grip on it and balanced himself on a single foot as he held the sword behind him. He held his left hand in front of him, with his palm to the side and his thumb, index, and middle fingers pointed up. He glowed a brilliant white as ethereal petals floated through the air. In a whirlwind of lotus petals, two more clones of the man appeared.

They glowed the same brilliant white as the petals and looked like spirits. He brought his hand down and readied the sword with both of his hands.

"It's time I ended this," he said. "You are nearly my equal. Had you been a man, I would have been proud to call you my rival."

He charged straight for Apollyon as the two clones dashed to either side. Apollyon charged for the true man, but was intercepted by one of the spirits jumping in front of him. He grabbed the sword from the spirit and stabbed it through him. The clone let out a hollow gasp and exploded into petals along with his weapon. Apollyon snarled as he felt another blade cut through his back. He whirled around and brought his jaws down on the spirit, biting his head off. He felt the head explode in his mouth and howled as smoke poured out. The real warrior planted his weapon into the ground and pushed off, kicking Apollyon in the chest. The Grimm stumbled back and saw the warrior closing in. He quickly brought his paws together and grabbed the shaft of the weapon. He felt the blade pierce through him and growled. He pulled the weapon out of his chest and lifted the man by it. Before he could flip him, however, the man let go and jabbed at Apollyon's chest. He growled again and brought his mouth down to bite the man. However, the warrior spun out of the way and charged in for another jab. Apollyon swung the weapon and saw the man grab the weapon. He yanked, but was unsuccessful in pulling it from Apollyon's grip. Apollyon lifted the man with the weapon and was successful in slamming him into the ground. Apollyon raised the weapon and stabbed down, hitting the warrior's barrier and further dimming it. He swung down again and broke away more of it. The third swing broke it. Apollyon spun the staff before stabbing it at the man. The warrior dodged the stab and jumped to his feet. He held up both of his hands as Apollyon mimicked the stance the man had with the weapon. The man charged forward, hands raised. Apollyon threw the sword sideways at his enemy, which the warrior ducked under. He grabbed the weapon and swung it down at Apollyon. However, he saw Apollyon split into two smoky halves. Apollyon reformed and slashed his claws upward. The man's head snapped back as his neck was torn open and his helmet flew off. He hit the ground, too weak to move. His sword clattered to the ground next to him.

Apollyon picked up the sword and held it above the man.

_Creation of light, your life ends now_, Apollyon mocked. _By your own blade, you shall fall._

He stabbed the blade through the man's chest and left it there. Apollyon stepped back and roared into the sky, announcing his victory to the heavens and whatever gods were left to listen. He heard another roar and turned. It was one of challenge. Behind him stood another Alpha and its pack. It growled and its pack moved into the street to encircle the two. The two Alphas began to circle each other. The opposing Beowolf charged first, its front paws raised to claw Apollyon open. Apollyon, however, calmly activated his ability and let the Alpha pass through him. It whirled around and prepared to strike again, but was too slow to attack and received a cut across the snout. It snarled and swung madly at Apollyon. The OMEGA hopped back and stood on his hind legs. He roared at the Alpha. The Alpha stood up and roared back. After a moment, the two Grimm charged and locked their arms. They bit at each other in vain attempts to kill the other. Apollyon felt something swell in his upper jaw and opened his mouth, allowing a jet of venom to shoot out. It splashed into the Alpha's eyes and caused it to yelp and whine as it stumbled back. Apollyon tackled the Alpha to the ground and roared right in its face. The two stared at each other before the Alpha below him lowly whined. Apollyon got off and saw the Alpha get back onto its feet and lower its head as it moved its tail between its legs. The other Beowolf watching howled, announcing Apollyon as their new leader. Apollyon joined them, howling louder than them all. He was their leader.

He was their Omega.

**/ / /**

On the airship to Beacon, a news report came on.

"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities," said Cyril, one of the Vale News Network's hosts. "If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you Lisa."

"Thank you, Cyril," said Lisa Lavender, the other host. "In other news, Grimm activity in the outskirts of Vale has picked up, with the third village in the past two weeks being overwhelmed. Due to the relative low amount of eyewitness accounts, details are fuzzy. However, it has been confirmed to be a growing pack of Beowolves, including two of the Alpha variety."

An image appeared. It was a surprisingly clear image of a Beowolf towering over multiple others as it roared into the sky. It was in a burning village.

"Videos have also surfaced online of the incidents as they happen. However, the Valean Council does not endorse any of the videos being passed around and encourages citizens to not view it, as it contains intense graphic material." She paused as an image came up of a group of Faunus protestors. "Next up, a recount of this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest."

**/ / /**

Apollyon relaxed on a hill in the Emerald Forest with his pack. In total, there were 23 normal Beowolves in it and another Alpha. His coat had finally grown all the way back as well, which he was glad about. It felt strange without his full coat. Ahead of him and his pack was a large tower, a symbol of both desire and wariness. He had been warned against going there, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel pulled towards it. His thoughts were interrupted by him seeing humans zip through the air and fly towards the forest. Towards him. He howled, causing his pack to join him. It was time to hunt as a pack once more.

Now, though, they were within a human stronghold. The amount of negativity generated would be delicious, he was sure of it.

* * *

**Chapter five! So, with this chapter, I'm going to start prepping the other story for teasing on my DeviantArt account (USB-Meister), so if you want to catch that, please do! It should be up by the end of the week, but don't expect it instantly. I also want to apologize for the long wait for these two chapters. As for the huntsman, I'll tell you his gear.**

**He wears dō-maru style Japanese armor and wields a weapon that can switch between an ōdachi form and a nagamaki form. His Semblance is known as Blossoming, and he needs to concentrate in order to activate it. It summons up a storm of lotus petals and, after a moment, summons a pair of clones of himself. The clones themselves can then work autonomously or be given commands, like Weiss' summons.**

**I guess I can also tell you about the new story. It's going to be a RWBY AU, much like this one, and it's going in an...interesting direction. Unfortunately, though, it's not a very original direction, but oh well! I can only hope it turns out well...**

**Please Review and tell me how I'm doing! Criticism is _very much appreciated_ and, if I want to grow, I need to know how I'm doing and how I can improve my writing. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you with TBR! Once it starts. Some time this week. If everything goes according to plan.**

**Please let everything work out...**


	7. Chapter 6: Encroachment

**VI**

**Encroachment**

"You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time!" Weiss shouted as she saw Ruby disappear in a flash of red petals.

She heard the rustling of bushes.

"Ruby?" She asked before leaning into a bush to see if her partner was in there, and saw a pair of red eyes greeting her. "Ruby…?"

She looked around the clearing and heard more bushes being disturbed, a pair of red eyes peeking out from each one. She heard a growl and turned around to see a Beowolf crawling out of the brush, staring her down all the while.

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted.

The Beowolf roared, signaling the beginning of an ambush. More crawled out before the one ahead of her charged. It swung its paw down, but she managed to bring her rapier up just in time to block the hit. She skidded back as the Beowolves began to surround her. Remember your training, Weiss, she thought to herself as she held her blade in front of her. As she repeated the instructions drilled into her from training in Atlas in her head, she performed them. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward—not that forward!—slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and… She repeated the mantra as she spun Myrtenaster's barrel to its fire Dust setting. Now! She shot forward like a bullet, ready to impale and burn the Grimm in front of her. Before she could reach it, however, Ruby charged in and slashed the Beowolf across the chest with her sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose. Weiss gave a cry of surprise and she stumbled to a stop, sending the flames across the grass and into the trees surrounding them. The tree the flame collided with incinerated, allowing the fire to spread even further. The Beowolf that Ruby had just attacked revealed itself to still be alive when it growled and swiped at Ruby, flinging her into Weiss. Weiss maintained her footing while Ruby fell to her hands and knees.

"Hey, watch it!" Ruby complained.

"Excuse me! You attacked out of turn!" Weiss explained. "I could've killed you!"

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that…" Ruby muttered as she turned back at the Beowolf that had attacked her.

The two huntresses-in-training readied their weapons as the Beowolf howled. Ruby reloaded her weapon and held it behind her, ready to launch herself into the action. However, she was stopped when a nearby tree fell to the ground, flames covering it and the grass under it. Curiously, slash marks were seen in it as well. Weiss grabbed Ruby's arm.

"We have to go!" Weiss ordered, pulling on Ruby and leading her out of the clearing in a sprint.

As the fire spread and they fled, the Beowolves began to howl and run from the flames. A louder, fearsome roar broke out among them, and a large Alpha slinked out of the clearing, followed by another, smaller one. With a silent command, the Beowolves' resolves were restored and they charged after the girls. Weiss turned back and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the pack giving chase.

"They're still after us!" She realized aloud.

An Alpha charged ahead of them and pounced for the girls. They hastily jumped to either side of its attack. The Beowolves circled the girls and the Alpha, as if to create a rudimentary fighting ring. The two huntresses prepared themselves as the Alpha stood up on its hind legs. It roared before jumping at Ruby with all its might. Ruby darted to the side and fired her scythe and propelled herself right back at it. She cut across its arm. It snarled as it turned to face her, but hunched over when Weiss slashed across its back while jumping over it. It swung at her while she was overhead, but a shot from Ruby's rifle disoriented it and caused it to miss. The Grimm howled in rage as it tried to take Weiss down, considering how close she was. Weiss used a glyph to send herself flying back and cycled her chamber to ice Dust. She stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground and sent out a wave of ice. The Alpha smashed its fist through the ice, fully expecting to break through it. However, it snarled when it was instead impaled through the arm by another spike erupting from the ground. It yanked back, tearing the icicle out of the ground and turned to Ruby. It had decided that Weiss was too troublesome. Ruby fired Crescent Rose behind her and flew across the forest and towards the Alpha. However, it grabbed her scythe before the attack could land and tossed her, weaponless, to the side. She cried out as she tumbled across the ground.

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted in distress.

The Alpha took advantage of Weiss' lapse in judgment, dropping Crescent Rose and pouncing onto her. It tackled her to the ground and roared in her face before biting down at her head. Weiss moved her head to the side and narrowly dodged the bite. The Alpha reared its head back for a second bite, but was shot by Crescent Rose. The rounds buried into its flesh and stunned it long enough for Weiss to scramble out from under it. Ruby continued laying down fire to buy Weiss time to ready herself once more. The Alpha snarled and charged at Ruby. However, before it could reach her, a plume of fire sent if flying to the side. Dozens of icy spikes shot out of the ground and impaled it where it lied. It couldn't even whimper before Ruby fired into its head, killing it.

The Beowolves surrounding them began to howl as their leader dissolved. They were about to charge in and avenge the Alpha when a roar silenced them. The girls heard a bush rustling and turned to see the largest Beowolf they had ever seen enter the clearing. It easily rivaled the size of an Ursa and had two masks on it: one was the typical Beowolf mask on its head, but the other was the mask of a Geist on its chest. Even more strange were the odd symbols on both masks. They seemed too human for a Grimm to have them on its bone plating. This Alpha stood up on its hind legs and stared down at the girls. Its crimson eyes darted first to Weiss, and then to Ruby. It looked almost as if it was studying them. After it was done, it got back down on all fours and turned around. It barked out an order and the other Beowolves followed it out of the clearing. Weiss and Ruby could only watch in both amazement and terror as this lone Alpha simply took control of the pack and led them away from what would have been an easy meal.

**/ / /**

Apollyon was disappointed in the performance of his underling. It had performed admirably against older warriors, so it was confusing to the Omega as to why it struggled against those two young girls. Upon closer inspection, however, Apollyon realized why it struggled: that Alpha had taken on a Silver-Eyed. Very rarely, a human with silver eyes would be born. Apollyon did not know why, but humans with silver eyes were much stronger than other warriors, regardless of age. He had only ever fought one Silver-Eyed in the past. Yes, he had killed the warrior, but Apollyon had almost died in the process. To know that he had run into a young Silver-Eyed here was strange. It gave Apollyon a strange feeling he had never felt before. His breathing became erratic, his eyes shifted, he felt tense, and he felt a cold sensation run up his back. He shook the feeling off and surveyed his pack. Two had succumbed to the flames, and the one the Silver-Eyed had slashed had a slight limp. That left him with 21 Beowolves to command; a less than optimal number, but a usable one nonetheless. He struck out with his pack, sniffing for some warriors to sate their hunger.

When they eventually did find a pair of warriors, it was a boy and a girl. The boy had short white hair and the girl had longer brown hair. The boy's weapon appeared to be a long, wooden rod. The girl had two guns at her disposal, small and emblazoned with wings on their grips. Apollyon howled out an order and the pack burst into the clearing. Their patience had worn thin, and there was no need to surround them and ambush them: they were resting in a small clearing. The girl readied her pistols as the boy twirled his staff.

"You ready, Zach?" She asked.

"Oh yeah," the boy replied confidently.

The Grimm charged into the clearing, intent on maiming the two warriors before them. The girl began firing into the wave, thinning out their numbers before the boy sprang into action. He weaved through the Grimm, spinning and whacking at every extremity in range. The two made up for each other's weaknesses. She could cripple the enemy before they could reach her, thus opening them for the boy to come in and finish the kill. The boy, meanwhile, could also serve as a distraction so that the girl could aim, fire, and reload. So, it was no surprise to Apollyon when his pack was killed. They hugged and laughed in triumph.

"Alright, let's head back to Beacon!" The girl shouted. "Oh, I can't wait to see who we're on a team with!"

"Calm down, Helena," Zach said. "I don't want to have to go up to the Headmaster and say my sister was so excited to get on a team she died from excitement."

The two shared another laugh before preparing to leave the clearing. Apollyon decided now was the time to strike by roaring as he dove for the girl.

"Watch out!" Zach shouted as he pushed her out of the way.

Helena tumbled to the ground as Apollyon was now tackling the boy to the ground. He roared in the young warrior's face before biting down. The boy cried out as the barrier flared a bright yellow. He heard a shout and glanced at the girl to see her eyes glowing a deep blue. A strange sound, almost like a bird's call, was heard before ethereal, blue feathers rained down from the sky. Apollyon quickly jumped off of Zach and darted between the rain of feathers. They were unlike the sharp feathers of a Nevermore, and were instead round and had elegant designs in them. Apollyon tackled Helena to the ground, inadvertently sending one of her winged pistols to the side. He roared as he slammed a paw down on her, breaking her blue barrier. Before he could finish her off, however, he heard a loud boom, followed by a sizzling. He could scarcely react before something burned its way into his back, causing him to howl. The girl fired her remaining gun into his chest, and that combined with the burning sensation made him easy to stumble. He staggered back as the pain continued to burn away at him, giving the girl enough time to retrieve her weapon and to reunite with the boy.

When the Omega finally regained his senses, he was furious. He stared down at the two, his malice and unyielding rage very evident in his face. He roared louder than ever before and dove in to finish this fight.

**/ / /**

Ozpin was standing next to Glynda on top of Beacon Cliff, sipping his mug and enjoying his view of the now decapitated Nevermore when he heard a roar, louder than any other he had heard during his time as Beacon's headmaster. He looked at Glynda, whom nodded in acknowledgement and began looking through the cameras, trying to find out what had caused it. Her eyes widened upon coming upon what was most likely the scene.

"Ozpin, I suggest you come over here," she said gravely.

Ozpin walked over, no longer with the carefree smile that typically adorned his face. He looked down at the Scroll and saw why she was so apprehensive.

"Oh my," was all he could say.

On the camera, the last pair of initiates was fighting an abnormally large Alpha Beowolf. It had singed fur on its upper back, but aside from that, the two future students looked worse for wear. The Beowolf had just dove for the boy, who was unfortunately too slow to escape. The Beowolf grabbed him and turned to the girl, forcing the boy between them. She had already fired both of her pistols at him, and was no doubt shocked to find her rounds pinging off of her partner's Aura. The Beowolf slammed the boy into the ground before throwing him into a tree, shattering what pitiful Aura was left. The girl roared and began unloading her pistols into the Beowolf, but the damage was comparable to a peashooter against a steel wall. Her eyes glowed, but she was forced to break her concentration and duck under his paw swing. The boy got back from the tree and charged back in, thwacking the Alpha across the back. The Grimm roared as more of his fur was singed from the lightning Dust imbedded in the boy's weapon. However, the Beowolf was still able to grab the boy and pin him down again. The girl's eyes glowed and Ozpin saw feathers appearing in the sky across from the cliff out of the corner of his eye.

What happened next, though, defied expectation. The Beowolf began emitting smoke from every part of its body and the two teachers and student could only watch in horror as the feathers passed harmlessly through the Grimm and impaled the student under it. By the time she realized what she had done and stopped, it was too late. The Grimm stepped back and revealed the boy was bleeding from several different places in his torso, arms, and legs. The girl broke down in tears.

"Zach…" she sobbed. "No…I'm so sorry…"

The Grimm grabbed her by the neck as she was defenseless and held her high. Her sadness was replaced by fear as she struggled against the iron grip. Her arms tried in vain to pry the claws away from her. The Grimm roared as it squeezed and her neck was snapped. In an instant, all her struggling stopped and her head slumped forward as her legs and arms dangled uselessly. The Grimm tossed her aside, allowing her vacant eyes to stare right into the camera as the Grimm got back down on all fours and sniffed the air. It turned towards the camera and growled. The last image the feed provided was a close-up of the Beowolf as it had pounced at it before it cut out. Glynda turned back to Ozpin.

"I…" she said, her mouth simply opening and closing as she failed to produce words.

"I will look into this matter with Peter once teams have been created," Ozpin said. "However, until then, I want you to find out who these students were, who they were going to be paired with based on relics, and tell their remaining team what has transpired."

"Of course," Glynda said with a nod.

The two walked away from the cliff and back into Beacon proper. They had a busy day, week, and possibly even month ahead of them. Whatever was in the Emerald Forest had to be stopped. It endangered the students and, to some extent, possibly even the staff. Ozpin was also fairly certain that Salem had orchestrated this, and as such, was starting her play against Vale. This was the beginning of the end, regardless of which side would be named the victor.

Ozpin couldn't afford to lose here.

* * *

**Hey guys, chapter six of _The Omega Subject_ is out!**

**...**

**Yeah, I know. I said the first chapter of TBR would be out before I continued this, but...I felt a bit scared to jump into TBR already. I didn't want to play hell with the already nonexistent upload scheduling, so I decided that it would be best to postpone TBR until I got further into this, maybe even finished it. So, I want to apologize for not only the long wait, but also for the disappointment that followed it. I dropped the ball on you guys, _again_, so I sincerely apologize. With that out of the way, I am happy to say I think this is a good chapter (for once). The ending is probably a bit rushed, but I cannot tell you how happy I am that I finally reached the true beginning of the story. Everything up until now?**

**That was essentially an extended epilogue.**

**This is where the _real_ meat of the story is: Apollyon reaching Beacon and causing havoc. There will be death. There will be scares for the RWBY cast. There will also be...grapes? Yeah, grapes. A bunch of grapes. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and the story to come! Oh, and please please _please_, leave a review and tell me how I'm doing.**

**On a side note, as of the writing of this AN, TOS has 800+ views. Eight. Hundred. I have no idea why so many people have decided to read this, but I cannot thank you guys enough for checking the story out! It's honestly making me so happy to see something I _genuinely enjoy_ making also making other people happy! Also, to the 16 brave souls who Favorited and the nine who Followed: thank you. Truly. I came onto this site thinking that I wasn't going to make an impact or anything, but here I am, sitting on close to 1k views, with over a dozen Favorites and close to a dozen Follows. And to those who haven't Followed or Favorited, I want to still thank you guys. You're showing me that I'm doing something right (somehow), but I don't want to diminish your role in both my growth as an author and the growth of the story. You are all amazing, and I can't wait to continue writing for you all! Thanks so much!**


	8. Chapter 7: Escalation

**VII**

**Escalation**

Apollyon had claimed a den in the form of a cave with strange, human markings on its front. They depicted a Deathstalker fighting humans. However, when Apollyon searched the cave, no Deathstalker was found. He lied down and found himself in a strange place. It was empty, black, and shrouded in fog. He tried in vain to leave, but could not. After what felt like an eternity in this land, he suddenly found himself back in the cave. He jumped to his feet and snarled, looking around for intruders. However, none could be found. Something similar had happened in that vehicle Watts, Cinder, and Emerald had him in after his escape from his prison. However, these thoughts could wait for later. Now, it was time for him to reform a pack. He made his way out of his cave and almost immediately smelled humans. He rushed at them, hoping to attack them unaware. They dared to trespass in his territory, and now they were going to pay the price. He soon found himself watching two children from the edge of a clearing.

One was a boy with short, sea-colored hair. He wore armor and had a strange pair of weapons. One was a long rod with three points on it, while the other was circular and had no visible points or barrels on it. The shield had a collection of strange symbols that Apollyon could not describe. The armor he wore was also strange. The helmet enclosed most of his face and had a plume of feathers that went from left to right. The chestplate was just that: metal that only protected his torso. He bore no shoulder armor, or armor for his arms save for greaves. He also wore a strange, skirt-like collection of strips of leather and metal. It reminded the Omega of the warrior he fought in the village some time ago.

The girl with him had an off-centered hairstyle, with a long tuft being on the right side of her head. The hair was mostly black, though the tuft had streaks of purple in it. Her weapon of choice was a pitifully small sword with a small ring on the bottom of its hilt. Her clothing was decidedly abnormal for a warrior. It looked more fit for a human that ran in terror at the sight of him rather than someone dedicated to his extinction. She had on a plain white tank top and torn jeans. She was currently in a higher branch of the tree, swinging one of her legs idly as she rested a hand on the knee of the other. Apollyon looked her over again, and noticed that she had wires of some sort coming from her ears and down to a pocket in her jeans. The boy leaned against the trunk of the tree.

The boy looked up at her and spoke.

"Khry, you see anything up there?" He asked.

She did not respond.

"Khry?" He asked again.

He noticed the wires in her ears and sighed. He banged his shield against the tree, shaking it lightly. She almost fell out, but steadied herself. She looked down at him.

"What?" She asked.

"I was going to ask if you saw anything from up there," he explained. "Considering you were listening to your music, though, I doubt you even looked."

"Hey!" She shouted.

"What? I'm right, and you know it," he stated confidently.

She huffed and hopped down from the tree.

"For the record, Duke, I started looking for something, but then I got bored," she told him.

"Then let's find another vantage point," he said as he picked up his trident and clicked it onto his greave before holding it with his right hand.

Apollyon noticed a strange cord had now attached to it. Looking closer, Apollyon noticed that he also had gauntlets, engraved with the same circular imagery of the shield and chestplate. They began to move out of the clearing. Apollyon decided now was the time to attack. He slinked in behind them and prepared to pounce. Before he could get close, however, he felt the earth shake.

"Gotcha," the boy said before the ground underneath the Grimm erupted.

Apollyon found himself flying into the air. He growled as he slammed back down on his side. He got back up and shook the dirt off of him as the girl charged in. Apollyon grabbed her by the arm as she dove in and tossed her aside. As she tumbled away, however, she brought herself back to her feet and through the blade at him, revealing that a cord was attached to the ring and let the blade sink itself right into his shoulder. He roared and charged for her. She jumped over him and yanked on the cord, ripping the blade out of him. Duke charged in and stabbed with the trident, narrowly missing as Apollyon jumped back. The Omega stumbled as the wound in his shoulder acted up. The boy flipped the trident in his hand and tossed it, the weapon landing in the ground in front of his target. Apollyon leaped over it to get the boy, but was thrown into the air by a fiery explosion. The boy clenched his fist and the trident was pulled from the earth and flew right back into his hand. Apollyon realized that these two had far better training than the other two warriors. When Apollyon landed back on the ground, the two children smirked between each other.

"This'll be so easy," Khry said.

"Don't get cocky," Duke warned.

The two charged back in. the boy on the left and the girl on the right. Apollyon decided it was time to reveal one of his trump cards. His body loosened as smoke flowed off of him. The children charged in and slammed into each other as they moved through him and into each other. They fell onto the ground and gave Apollyon time to jump the boy and solidify. He grabbed the boy with his mouth and tossed him aside to focus on the girl. He slammed a paw down on her, bouncing her off of the ground. He grabbed her and tossed her right at the now charging boy. He quickly let go of his trident and shield to catch her. The trident found itself attached to his greave and the shield fell to the ground. Apollyon charged forward, forcing the boy to jump to the side. He let go of Khry, letting her continue the battle and buy him time to retrieve his shield. She threw the small sword again, but Apollyon had prepared himself. He stood up on his hind legs and stepped to the side, catching the cord. He pulled, tripping the girl and bringing her to him. He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her back into the ground before slashing across her chest. Her purplish barrier shattered, finally, and allowed him his prize. Before he could bite her throat out, however, Duke's shield slammed into him, staggering him.

The boy shouted as he jumped and stabbed with his trident, burying all three points into the Omega's chest. Apollyon roared as he grabbed the trident and pulled it out. He spun the boy around before slamming it into the ground, breaking the young warrior's deep blue barrier. Apollyon then grabbed the boy by his head and roared as he squeezed it until it popped like the fleshy melon it was. The helmet crumpled in his paws as the boy's limp body fell to the ground. Apollyon dropped the helmet and turned to the girl. She certainly seemed on the verge of falling apart, but her rage seemed equal to his own.

"You killed Duke!" She shouted. "You'll pay!"

She charged forward with reckless abandon. Trying to stab him with the dagger. Predictably, she threw the dagger again, allowing Apollyon to catch it. He tugged and slashed with the dagger, cutting her throat open as she passed. The rope pulled taut and stopped her flight, sending her to the ground. She spasmed as the blood leaked out of her throat. Her hands found themselves on the wound in some ill-conceived notion that it would stop the bleeding. Apollyon marched over, her sword still in his grip. He raised it up and stabbed down, sinking the blade in her chest. She curled up and gasped before falling back down, dead. Apollyon growled in the back of his throat as he looked at the two dead. They had certainly been more troublesome than that warrior he fought in the village, back when he first got his pack, but they were much less of a threat than him.

His eyes wandered to the helmet of the boy, all ruined and filled with his splattered brains and blood. He had an evil idea. A truly evil idea. He whimpered and looked down at himself. He had multiple wounds all over him. He decided that today was a day for rest. Tomorrow would have his plan executed.

**/ / /**

"But they were no match! And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" Nora stated triumphantly.

Her friend, Ren, sighed.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now," he tiredly explained.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha, Jaune's partner, asked worriedly.

"Huh?" Jaune asked, having spaced out. "Oh, yeah! Why?"

"It's just that you seem a little…not okay," Ruby reasoned, joining the conversation.

The two girls could tell that Jaune was mildly upset over his defeat in sparring class earlier. Before Jaune could try and explain himself, however, the sound of shattering glass drew everyone's attention. A battered helmet soared through the air before bouncing off of a nearby table and landing on the ground. The room was silent as everyone stared at the broken helmet and the window it had just been thrown through. After a moment, something began to dribble out of the nearly destroyed helmet.

It was red.

The cafeteria immediately became loud and chaotic as people shouted and tried to run out.

"Oh my Oum, did someone die?!"

"Is that blood?!"

"I think I knew him!"

Before many could get out, however, Glynda strode in and quieted every down with her voice.

"Children! Calm down! What is happening in here?" She shouted over the crowd, waving her crop to silence them.

Students in her way stepped aside and allowed her to see the battered helmet. She kneeled down in front of it and recognized it immediately. She picked it up with her telekinesis and turned to the students.

"Students, please return to your dorms immediately," she ordered. "Until you are told to leave, you will remain in them."

The students nervously filed out of the cafeteria, with Glynda leaving soon after. She had to talk to Ozpin about this. The Grimm had attacked again.

**/ / /**

Ozpin had called Peter and Bartholomew into his office once Glynda arrived with a bloodied helmet. Once everyone had settled down, Ozpin turned to Glynda.

"Glynda, do we know who the helmet belonged to?" He asked.

"Duke Melas. He was scheduled to be on a team with Khryseis Minoa, Zach Graec, and Helena Graec," Glynda explained. "I had told him specifically not to hunt after this Grimm, along with his partner."

"When did you tell them?" Ozpin continued.

"I told them the night of initiation," Glynda stated.

"So that means they left either that night, yesterday, or possibly even earlier today," Ozpin reasoned as he looked through camera logs.

The other teachers with Ozpin began searching through their Scrolls to find out when the students left. After half an hour passed, Peter spoke up.

"Ah ha!" The portly man shouted. "I've found them!"

"When?" Ozpin asked.

"They left yesterday morning," the professor stated.

Ozpin quickly flipped through the cameras before finding one of them leaving campus early yesterday morning. He flipped through more cameras and found a clip of them resting in a clearing. Khryseis was swinging one of her legs off of a tree branch as she listened to music. Duke was leaning against the tree, his weapons in hand. He looked up at her and spoke.

"Khry, you see anything up there?" He asked.

His partner, however, was too busy listening to her music to listen to him.

"Khry?" He asked again.

He squinted his eyes and saw her headphones were in. He sighed before stepping back and hitting the tree with his shield, causing it to shake. Khryseis almost fell out of the tree, but maintained her seat and looked down.

"What?" She asked.

"I was going to ask-" started Duke, but Ozpin began fast forwarding through the clip to reach the part where they encountered the Grimm.

He eventually reached a part where the Alpha showed up. They were leaving the clearing when it tried to sneak in behind them. The boy smirked as the earth shook.

"Gotcha," he boasted.

The ground erupted underneath the Grimm, sending it into the air. It landed on its side and was slow to get back up. Khryseis charged in as he tried to get up. The Alpha was quick, however, and grabbed her arm before she could stab it and threw her aside. The girl was fast to her feet, however, and threw her dagger at the Grimm. It was attached to a cord and buried itself in the Grimm's shoulder. The Alpha roared and charged in, but was too slow to stop her from jumping over it and pulling her weapon out by yanking on the cord. Duke charged in as she backed up, stabbing with his trident. The Alpha was faster this time, however, and dodged the attack. The Beowolf showed weakness as it stumbled from the pain in its shoulder, which Duke capitalized on by flipping the trident's grip and throwing it in front of the Grimm. It buried its three points in the ground, and Ozpin noticed that a Dust canister slotting into it. The Grimm didn't seem to notice this, however, and dove right over it and right into Duke's trap. A shockwave of pure fire shot out, sending the Grimm higher into the air than it was previously.

Duke activated the mechanism hidden within his gauntlet and pulled the trident back into his grasp as the Alpha fell back down, landing on its feet this time.

"This'll be so easy," Khryseis taunted as she readied herself for round two.

"Don't get cocky," Duke warned her.

The two shared short nods before charging back in, Duke on its left and Khryseis on its right. When they reached the Grimm and stabbed, however, it had activated the same ability it had when fighting Zach and Helena. The two students passed right through the Grimm, hitting each other with their weapons and also colliding with each other. They both hit the ground on either side of it and the tide of the battle turned. The Grimm solidified itself once more and jumped onto the boy. He bit down on him and threw him to the other side of the clearing to focus on his partner. It slammed its paw down onto the girl so hard she bounced off of the ground and landed in its grasp. The Grimm quickly turned around and threw her at Duke, forcing him to drop his shield and attach his trident to his greave and catch her. The Alpha charged forward and forced Duke to jump to the side. Khryseis twisted out of his grip and charged the Beowolf to buy him time to get his shield back. She threw her dagger again, but the Alpha had learned from the previous time. The Grimm caught the cord and yanked on it, tripping Khryseis and bringing her right to it. It slammed its paw down on her before slashing with its other. Her Aura shattered, leaving her perfectly exposed. Before the Alpha could kill her, however, Duke charged in and slammed his shield into it. The Grimm staggered back and then roared when Duke jumped and stabbed the Grimm, impaling it with all three prongs.

The Alpha was done playing games, however. It grabbed the trident, tore it out, and slammed the boy into the ground, shattering his Aura as well. The Grimm picked up the boy by his head and continued his roar as the boy screamed in his clutches. It was no use, though, because in the end, the boy's helmet finally gave and his head exploded. The boy's body fell, followed soon after by his helmet. The Grimm turned to the girl, who was a ragged mess. Her eyes burned with rage, however.

"You killed Duke!" She shouted. "You'll pay!"

She charged forward and threw her dagger, not learning from the previous throw or simply not caring about what happened last time. The Grimm certainly had not forgotten, as it grabbed the dagger this time and yanked her forward. The Grimm slashed with the dagger in its paw, cutting a jagged line across her throat. She continued on her flight and was stopped only when the cord pulled taut. She fell to the ground, grasping at the wound. The Grimm walked over and raised the dagger to an almost overdramatic height before thrusting it down, stabbing her through the chest. Her death was quick. The short silence in the clearing was ended with a low growl from the Grimm. However, the Grimm stopped its growls and, for the faintest of moments, the teachers saw something truly terrifying.

The Grimm smiled.

* * *

**Chapter seven! Woot! I never thought I'd get this far without giving up! And I have you guys to thank for that! Seriously, if it wasn't for you guys and bringing this up to ONE THOUSAND VIEWS, I wouldn't be as happy as I currently am with writing this! So, please tell me what you guys think (if you so desire), and I will see you next time! Thanks!**


	9. Chapter 8: Countermeasures

**VIII**

**Countermeasures**

The atmosphere in Beacon's auditorium was tense. Everyone knew by now that a student had died, and judging by how they learned, most had deduced it was a murder. Yang was worried about her younger sister more than anything, though, as she had not taken the scare in the cafeteria yesterday very well.

"You sure you're okay, Rubes?" Yang asked.

"Yes, Yang," Ruby answered for what seemed the hundredth time, though Yang could tell not even Ruby knew if she was actually fine.

Yang, instead of arguing further, as that hadn't convinced her to open up, simply sighed and draped an arm over Ruby's shoulder. It was at that moment that Ozpin strode into the room, accompanied by Glynda. However, much like when he gave the speech on the first day, something seemed off with him. He cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone.

"I am sure you all know why I'm giving this speech. So, I will do my best to keep this brief as well. Yesterday, the helmet that once belonged to Duke Melas was thrown through a window in the cafeteria," he said before he paused. "After investigation, we have concluded that his fate was shared with his partner, Khryseis Minoa, and with his future teammates, Zach and Helena Graec."

The crowd erupted for some moments before, unexpectedly, Ozpin hit his cane against the floor and silenced them.

"Students, please, allow me to finish before you spread your rumors," he interjected, in a never-before-seen harsh tone. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. But, this is a serious matter. At this time, lurking in the Emerald Forest, the most intelligent Grimm ever discovered is waiting for its next morsel of food. It first claimed the lives of Zach and Helena during initiation, and that is when we first found it."

He paused, possibly to take a breath.

"Then, their teammates, the aforementioned Duke and Khryseis, went into the Emerald Forest to avenge their deaths. I hate to phrase it like this, but we have all seen now what became of their plan," he continued. "This Grimm has not only taken the lives of my students and your peers, but it threatens the very safety of Vale. It has gotten onto Beacon campus. It plays at psychological warfare. It acts…like one of us."

The student body was silent. Gravely silent.

"From now until said otherwise, under no circumstances are you to be separate from your partners while on Beacon grounds. Please refrain from exploring campus or wandering on its outskirts for unnecessary amounts of time. Do not leave the dorm building at night," Ozpin listed off. "And the Emerald Forest is now strictly off-limits for all first-year teams. Second-, third-, and fourth-year teams are discouraged from entering the forest, especially on their own, but are allowed to do so for small time frames. A member of Beacon staff is to accompany you at all times if you choose to enter the forest."

He sighed a weary sigh.

"Remnant as a whole has never had as much peace, both within each Kingdom's borders and in inter-Kingdom relations. Yes, the White Fang are a threat. Yes, racism against the Faunus is still a problem we must work past. Yes, Roman Torchwick walks the streets and steals Dust from unsuspecting stores. But, the world needs its huntsmen and huntresses," Ozpin pleaded. "I do not wish to impose such rules and regulations on my students, but this Grimm is the largest threat to Beacon academy and possibly even the city of Vale. If the world lost its next generation of huntsmen and huntresses because of my ignorance, I fear the worst. I hope you all understand why I am doing what I am."

As he walked off of the stage, Glynda stood up to the microphone.

"A full list of the new rules will be sent to all of your Scrolls, including the new curfew," Glynda stated. "Please, students, read through them. You are dismissed."

As Glynda walked off, the auditorium was loud once more as the student body began talking amongst itself. As team RWBY left the auditorium and talked, they received the message the deputy headmistress had spoken of. Included with it was an image, titled "The Grimm (DO NOT ENGAGE)".

"Huh. They got a picture of it," Yang said.

Curious, she downloaded it. Once it finished, she opened the file and let out a whistle.

"He is ug-ly. What say you, Blake?" She asked as she showed her Scroll to Blake.

She eyed it curiously. It showed a Beowolf, but something was off about it. The left half of its mask was mostly gone, having been broken or something of the like. Its left eye was also dimmer, strangely enough. However, the strangest thing about it was the little snippet of bone that was visible on its chest.

"Wait, what's that on its chest?" Blake asked her blonde partner.

"Huh?" Yang asked, taking the Scroll back and looking over it. "I…don't know. If this was some action movie, I could enhance the image or whatever so we could see it better."

Blake took the Scroll and held her finger over the image, zooming in on the chest. She looked it over before handing it back to Yang.

"Oh, right," Yang said before looking at it. "Is that another Grimm mask on it?"

That statement caused Weiss and Ruby to stop. They slowly looked at each other before fishing out the Scrolls and looking at the image that Blake and Yang were talking about. Upon opening it, Weiss almost dropped her Scroll. Ruby did. The sound of her Scroll clattering to the floor caused Yang and Blake to turn around.

"Ruby? Something wrong?" Yang asked, noticing how Ruby's already pale skin had somehow gotten even paler.

Weiss elbowed their leader to get her out of her trance. Ruby quickly shook her head before reaching down to pick up her Scroll.

"No! No…nothing at all," Ruby said, winning no awards for her abysmal acting.

Weiss facepalmed before sighing.

"What our fearless leader is trying to say is that yes, something is very wrong," Weiss explained.

"Well, spit it out already!" Yang asked impatiently as they resumed their walk.

"We ran into that Grimm during initiation," Weiss stated.

Yang went wide-eyed and jetted over to Ruby.

"Oh my Oum, are you okay?" She asked while frantically looking over Ruby.

"Yaaaaang!" Ruby whined while trying to push her over-protective sister off of her. "I'm fiiiine!"

The remaining two members of team RWBY cracked smiles, all four of them momentarily forgetting about the tense atmosphere surrounding them.

**/ / /**

Apollyon had gone through another period of darkness. He did not know what exactly to call it. He just knew that if he truly exerted himself in battle, if he got really hurt, or if he had gone too long without entering it, his body and mind both cried out for him to lie down and close his eyes. The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by darkness. Fog would rise up from the floor, and it did not matter where he went, as it appeared there was no end to this void. He would howl, snarl, roar, and slash at the fog and ground, but nothing ever came of it. His time in the void seemed to vary. Sometimes, it felt like he would never leave, and other times, he felt like he had just arrived before being returned to the forest. He gave up on questioning it after the third time it happened. He got up and stretched out his limbs, an addition to the growing list of repetition that followed him getting up. First, he would calmly get onto his feet before stretching. Occasionally, a strange sound was forced out of him as he did so. He could never explain it, especially when he started making it during the day for seemingly no reason. It had to be connected to this world of darkness, though, as it always happened either soon before or soon after entering and leaving it. Pushing those thoughts aside, he left his den and sniffed the air in the forest. He stiffened and got low. Humans. He could smell them. There were four humans and one of those animal-like humans with them.

He made his way towards them, curious as to who else was foolish enough to enter his territory. He eventually came in sight of them. It was two females, one of which was the beast person, while the other three were males. One of the males was leading the way. He was a portly man with a large amount of facial hair on his upper lip. However, Apollyon could tell he was a warrior judging by the large axe in his hands. The one immediately behind him was one of the males. He had cropped brown hair and was wearing a vivid orange trench coat, which had a black shirt under it. His pants were black. His pants were tucked into a pair of black combat boots. His weapon appeared to be a longsword with a split blade. Between its twin edges was a cannon. Behind him was the human girl. She had long black hair with a violet bandana in it. She had on dark blue jeans, a plain white shirt, and an opened violet jacket on. She had on violet sneakers that had white toes. Her weapon of choice was odd: it was a staff that had a smaller grip and had two swords on either end.

Behind her was a girl with antlers on her head. Her shoulder-length hair was a deep red, and her skirt matched it perfectly in color. Her blouse was the same color as well, and the belt that separated the two articles of clothing was black. She wore slippers which were violet for some strange reason, though. Her weapon was a surprisingly large hand cannon. It was larger than her fist, much larger, and was painted in that same deep red that controlled her outfit, though it had black, violet, orange, and brown details. The last member of the party, the third male, had neatly cut brown hair. He wore khakis with a red-brown sweater. Underneath this brown sweater was a long-sleeved white formal shirt. His shoes were just as neat and formal as the rest of his outfit, being a pair of black dress shoes. His weapon was a shield. The shield was very intricate in its design, having icy blues, whites, grays, and a brown insignia. It had multiple incisions in it as well, showing that it could transform. Into what, though, Apollyon could not tell. The Grimm continued to trail the group for a few more minutes, watching as they took down a small herd of Boarbatusks. The first boy's weapon was indeed a cannon-sword combo, but the way he used it was interesting.

He could stab a Grimm and then fire the cannon point-blank, usually killing it. Or, he could stab it into the side of a tree or into the ground and fire the cannon from there, using the incision to steady the weapon. He also used its recoil to speed up the sword and cut through something he typically could not. The first girl's twinblade could also separate the two swords and have them work as separate weapons. Alternatively, she could keep them in the twinblade configuration and turn it into a rifle. The second girl, the one with antlers, used her hand cannon to disorient the Grimm. If close enough, it could kill, but he could see why she used it to disorient more than anything. The hand cannon, after firing, would typically transform into a massive, gauntleted fist. Despite her seemingly frail build, she could crack off a Boarbatusk's tusks with a single punch. The last boy's shield could unfurl and grow even larger. Then, he would glow the color of his barrier and suddenly, that same glow would flow through the shield and create an even larger barrier. He used this many times to stop a Boarbatusk in its charge and send it flying back. Then, he would shrink the shield back and leap forward faster than any other human the Omega had seen and crush the Grimm with his shield.

Once they had cleared out the herd, Apollyon decided that it was time to toy with these warriors.

* * *

**Chapter eight! So, onto my personal feelings of the chapter.**

**...**

_**Ehhhhh.**_** I don't know what it is, but I feel like something about the chapter is just wrong. Maybe it's the speech. Maybe it's that section right before we switch to Apollyon. I don't know. But, what I do know is that I am happy to continue the story. And that, you know, I've somehow gotten 1.5k reads, 10 Reviews, 13 Favorites, and 24 Follows. Also, this chapter is officially pushing TOS past the 20k word milestone. That's nice.**

**...**

**So, how are you?**

**I don't know what it is, but this is just an extremely awkward AN. So, I'm just going to ask that you enjoy the story to come and leave it there. Thanks for reading and leaving those Reviews, Favorites, and Follows!**


	10. Intermission 2: Update, Apologies, Q&A

**Hey everyone. I decided to make a quick intermission to let you guys know something: I am absolutely stuck on how to advance the story. Let me explain. Currently, sitting on my computer, are two copies of TOS. One of them is going one direction, the other is my plan for going a different one. I'm not entirely certain how good the original is, but I have no idea how to advance in a different direction. I don't even know if I should or not. So, I have decided instead to come here in this little intermission to ask you guys: should this team of students live or die, and should Port join them if they live or die?**

**Please, give me your thoughts in a Review, along with any other questions or concerns you might have involving the story. Thanks.**

* * *

**Story Tidbit**

Subject: Entering Phase 2

To: [DATA EXPUNGED], [DATA EXPUNGED], [DATA EXPUNGED], [DATA EXPUNGED]

From: [DATA EXPUNGED]

Greetings. After the recent incident at OLYMPUS, I feel now is the best time for us to enter Phase 2 of our operations. Attached to this message you will find a list of Candidates detained at YGGDRASIL, AVALON, and ZERZURA that are ready for augmentation, as deemed so by The Council. However, it has been noted by The Council that under no circumstances is General Ironwood allowed to learn of the beginning of this phase of operations. Hijacked messages show he is currently trying to shut down the remaining facilities through force, and is making remarkable progress despite the political hurdles required to deploy Atlesian forces in foreign territory. New locations have already been prepped, under the names ATLANTIS, AZTLÁN, EDEN, and ELYSIAN. You will each receive further messages giving you coordinates to your new facility. In addition, a new Director has been chosen to take over the Atlesian branch, seeing as our previous one perished when OLYMPUS self-destructed.

Also following the destruction of OLYMPUS, new security protocols are in effect. Also attached is a document containing all policies, both updated and not. They are to be read personally by yourselves and to be given to your SCs for further distribution. Under no circumstances can we allow another loss like OLYMPUS. It has already slowed down our plans enough, the construction of new facilities notwithstanding. Speaking further on the facilities, they are not yet finished. Another message will be sent to each of you individually giving you details on which facility is yours, how you will reach it, and how you will transport any and all Subjects and Candidates.

That concludes this message. Forward the Program!

* * *

**The Hierarchy of the GCC**

**Ordered from top to bottom, highest to lowest**

The Grimm Control Council - "The Council"/"The GCP"; They are the leaders of the Grimm Control Program, the GCC is a shady group of ex-military personnel, disgruntled researchers, and unethical scientists that have wriggled their way into the Atlesian Council's graces by promising a permanent way of defeating the Grimm threat with the Grimm Control Program. They plan the Phases, give orders to the Board of Directors and Security Committee, and construct new Stations. Nothing happens in the GCP without their permission or their knowledge of it happening.

Grimm Control Program Security Administrator - "The GCPSA"/"The SA"/The Security Administrator"/"The Administrator"; This is the individual in charge of everything in the GCP dealing with safety, security, secrecy, and logistics. They are appointed directly by the GCC, and are chosen from well-respected members of the Security Committee. Their job is to approve appointments made by Directors, schedule meetings of the Security Committee, screen possible future employees of GCPSEC, creating all security and safety guidelines for the GCP, and coordinating resource movements in line with the Phases planned by the GCC.

Grimm Control Program Security Committee - "The GCPSC"/"The Security Committee"/"SecCom"; SecCom's job is to serve as a group of advisors to the Security Administrator, and to help his or her efforts in logistics, record keeping, and maintaining secrecy. They are appointed by the SA and approved by the Council, and are typically ex-military personnel.

Grimm Control Program Board of Directors - "The GCPBD"/"The Board"/"The Board of Directors"/"The Directors"; The Board is made up of four people, and each one directly oversees a different Station. They are appointed through a joint vote by SecCom and approved by the Council. Their job is to hire a Security Coordinator, approve appointments to the Security Coordination Office, screen possible Subjects, gather resources for their capture, trials, and augmentation, and recruit new members to the Project...with permission from the Council, of course.

Grimm Control Program Security Coordination Office - "The GCPSCO"/"The SCO"/"The Security Coordination Office"; The SCO is a Program-spanning committee, though each office is independent of the other. There are four offices, one for each Station, and are hired by the Station's Director. Each office has an Officer, a Board, and an Atlesian Specialist. Their job is to oversee the security of their Station, hire GCPSEC members, and authorize self-destruction, purging, and evacuation protocols.

Grimm Control Program Security Staff - "The GCPSS"/"Security"/"GCPSEC"; GCPSEC is one of the larger sections of the GCP, and are its sword and shield. They patrol the halls, watch cameras, man Bullheads, capture Subjects and Candidates, and when Phase 2 is begun, will become a paramilitary force. They receive more specialized training than standard Atlesian troops, but rely more heavily on automated soldiers and vehicles as a result. They wear standard Atlesian soldier gear, but their uniforms are a light blue rather than a stark white. Their job is to help with evacuation, reign in wild Subjects and Candidates, maintain security within the Stations, and serve alongside the Grimm Security Force.

Grimm Control Program Research Group - "The GCPRG"/"The Research Group"; This is the largest section of the GCP, and is made up entirely of scientists. Their job is to study Candidates and Subjects, perform trials, and oversee the combat tests. Their job is rather bare bones, and they lack much power in the grand scheme of the GCP's plans, but without their help, the Program would only ever be a dream.

Grimm Security Force - "The GSF"/"The Grimm Troops"; The GSF is a section of the GCP made up entirely of Subjects and Candidates. During Phase 1, their job is only to serve as experiments to help solidify procedures for the Phase 2 Candidates. When Phase 2 finally begins, the remaining Subjects will serve as special forces and have a more commanding role within even GCPSEC. Phase 2 Candidates will serve as reserve troops and patrol support both in cities and battlefields. When the procedures are finally perfected, GSF Candidates will be denoted by white fur, icy blue eyes, calm voices, light blue vests, and Atlesian emblems carved into their faceplates, in addition to the augmentation they would have received and their obedience to GCPSEC forces.

* * *

**Updated Plans for the Future**

Step 1: Finish TOS.

Step 2: Finalize the background for TBR.

Step 3: Tease TBR on DeviantART (as USB-Meister).

Step 4: Begin publishing TBR here.

Step 5: Finish TBR here.

Step 6: Try something a bit...different.

Step 7: After that's out of the way, work on TOS' sequel, hopefully ending the story for good but who knows?

Step 8: Start work on Designation Apollo, another foray into an alternate RWBYverse.

Step 9: We'll wing it from here.

* * *

**That concludes this intermission. I want to apologize for the sudden dip in content release, but I look forward to completing this story. That being said, please give a Review voicing your thoughts on how the story should proceed, or giving a criticism, or just giving your thoughts on the story as a whole. Thank you guys for reading, and I hope you continue to Follow and Favorite!**

**Also, I just want to thank you guys for getting this story past 2K views, a dozen Reviews, ****over a dozen Favorites, ****and over two dozen Follows! It is just mind boggling to me as to how that happened! Thank you guys, again, so much!**


	11. Chapter 9: The Trap

**IX**

**The Trap**

Apollyon knew his chances of openly challenging five, more experience warriors were not the best, even with his augmentations. His physiology as a Beowolf made him better suited to ambushing and swarming in large packs. Understanding this, he chose to shadow this group to find an opportune time to dash in, confuse them, and then try and take one away from the rest to be finished off alone. As he followed them, however, he noticed how at ease they were. It was strange. The school had just been submerged in fear, yet these five were stoic. Looking off at the school, its tower barely visible through the trees, he noticed how the situation there, while certainly not calm by any definition, was far less full of fear than he thought it would be. The boy in orange motioned for the violet girl to walk over, and though no words were spoken, Apollyon realized they were planning. He saw the boy jerk his head in his direction. The girl nodded and turned to where Apollyon was hiding. Before the Beowolf could move, her hands shot out and a wave of concussive force slammed into him, throwing both him and the nearby trees back. As he slowly shook off debris and recovered, the portly man aimed the end of his axe to the sky.

"Huh-ha! The hunt begins!" He shouted as he pulled a trigger, sending a large metal ball into the air with a deafening boom.

The ball soared before detonating in the air, with an even louder, high pitched whistle. Apollyon realized it was a trap all too late. The boy with the shield charged forward, sending Apollyon back to the ground as he was distracted by the metal ball. The Grimm snarled as he got back onto his feet. The girl with antlers raised her handcannon and fired, but Apollyon simply turned his body to smoke and let the round pass through. What he did not expect, however, was for the other girl to send another wave of force, and Apollyon howled as pain rippled through him. It felt like he was falling apart at the seams. He dispelled the smoke and solidified in time to take a round from the handcannon. In the distance, he heard the engines of flying vehicles closing in. He believed himself to be the predator here, but the tables had been turned. He was now the prey. His only option now was retreat, though he found himself unwilling to do so. His instincts screamed for him to fight, but his mind shouted at him to run away. He was at such a conflict of interests, he didn't realize the portly man had fired. The metal ball impacted against his left shoulder and exploded, blowing some chunks off of it. Apollyon howled and spasmed as the pain flowed over and within him.

The vehicles were now above him, and out of them dropped two more groups of four. One had two boys and two girls, the other was all boys. One girl held out a box and it slowly transformed into the largest gun Apollyon had ever seen.

"Take it down!" The boy in orange shouted.

The barrels of the gun whirred to life and spun, and Apollyon realized what exactly that meant. He turned and ran as best he could, despite the torn shoulder. A loud buzzing noise filled the air as bullets zipped around, followed by multiple bangs as the trees they hit exploded. More booms were heard, and he dreaded to look behind him. He peeked over his shoulder and saw many had taken out guns and were firing and advancing forward, as those with swords, hammers, and other such weapons were charging for him. He slowly felt himself getting more and more unwilling to move, but he pushed himself further and further into the forest. Bullets whizzed by, buried themselves in his armor and hide, exploded underneath and around him, and otherwise wrecked havoc. Eventually, though, he had to force himself to a stop as he came across a large chasm. His claws buried into the soil and his shoulder screamed at him as he stopped right at the edge. He turned to find a new avenue of escape but saw the humans had already surrounded him. The oldest one strode in with pride.

"Your reign in the forest is over, beast!" He stated triumphantly.

_Not from my point of view,_ Apollyon said back, surprising the man. _While I may no longer hold the throne, my brothers and sisters still rule this forest._

The students noticed Port's sudden mood change and looked worried. Strangely, they didn't seem to hear him.

"Professor? You alright?" Asked the boy in orange.

The man shook his head.

"Quite alright, my boy," he reassured. "Just thought I heard something."

The old man looked to Apollyon.

"I'd say we've dragged this on long enough," he announced.

_Quite,_ Apollyon replied.

Then, the Grimm made a horrendous choice. While every rational part of him told him not to do it, there was a small part, no doubt his troublesome brain, that told him to. Apollyon gave in to that small part, and jumped.

**/ / /**

Port rushed over to the edge with Bruno, the team leader of BLAC. They looked and saw the Grimm was now gripping onto the side of the cliff face, as if it was trying to slowly climb down after it had brazenly jumped over.

"Mister Orantius!" Port shouted.

"On it!" Bruno replied, aiming his gunsword.

He fired at where the Beowolf's paw was buried into the rock, and heard it snarl as it was now hanging on only by its wounded arm. It could not stay long, however, as it soon after lost its grip and roared loudly as it plummeted to the bottom of the chasm. It hit the rocky bottom with a loud thud, the gruesome sound bouncing off of the walls of the canyon that had been made slightly famous since the flashy initiation of that first-year team, RWBY. Black and white smoke billowed up from the Grimm, indicating it was dead. Bruno chuckled a little.

"That was almost too easy," the fourth-year said.

"What's done is done, lad," Port replied. "I must say, it was a remarkable plan of yours to lure this Grimm out."

Bruno had come to Port with a plan on how to lure out the super Grimm that had cropped up. Considering it had only picked off two pairs of first-year students, Bruno rationalized that it would assume all the children here were the same threat level. So, he asked Port to take his team on a routine extermination mission, but with a twist. He would use his Semblance, which gave him a radar-like ability so long as he concentrated hard enough, to find out where the Grimm was. Then, Alta would fire at it to activate its strange, smoky ability. This was where Bruno's genius idea came in. He theorized that, since the smoke was still the Grimm, a shockwave would be extremely painful and disorienting, because it would try and disperse the smoky visage. However, since it was still being held together in some manner, it would cause the smoke to instead vibrate intensely and, hopefully, cause enough agony to disorient the Grimm. Then, as they distracted it, a flare round loaded into Port's blunderbuss would bring in two other teams that packed heavy weapons: CFVY and PYRE. After that, it would be simple to hose the Grimm down with a volume of firepower so intense not even a horde of Ursa Majors could hope to survive.

That volume of firepower part, while not as effective as he had initially hoped, still kept the Grimm on the run. Then, once it was cornered, the hard part was done. After that, they just had to whale on it until it died, like any other Grimm. What put a stop on that plan, however, was Bruno noticing Port suddenly go pale after mocking the Grimm. It did not matter in the end, however, as the Grimm basically killed itself.

"Well, off we go, then!" Port said after a pause, the two of them mesmerized by the slowly growing pillar of smoke. "I'm sure Ozpin will be happy that you managed to take this monster down."

Bruno nodded and Port called in Bullheads. Within mere minutes, the group had made it back to Beacon and an assembly had been gathered. Port and the three teams stood on the stage with Ozpin and Glynda. Ozpin silenced the crowd with a wave of his hand and spoke into the microphone.

"I'm sure you are all curious about why you have been brought here at such a sudden time," he said. "So, this speech, unlike my others, will actually be brief. Put simply, the Grimm that plagued the Emerald Forest and killed four students…has itself been defeated."

The throng of students erupted into joyous shouts and cries. It died down after some minutes, allowing Ozpin to continue.

"Professor Port, along with teams BLAC, CFVY, and PYRE, set out with the goal of defeating this Alpha Beowolf just earlier today," Ozpin explained. "Because of their accomplishment, I wished to announce that, not only is the Emerald Forest no longer off limits, but the curfew has also been returned to its original time. However, because I am unsure of the possible threat of another Grimm like this one, I still advise students against wandering campus alone and going on missions without Beacon faculty. I, along with the other members of Beacon staff, will conduct a thorough search of the Emerald Forest tomorrow to make sure no more such Grimm are present. After that, the restrictions will be removed. You may be dismissed."

The group of students could not have been happier, having just received such great news. Ozpin himself smiled openly as he watched them leave. He turned back to the students and teacher gathered on stage.

"You all have my personal thanks. I'm sure tackling such a challenge was no easy feat. You may resume classes tomorrow," he stated, much to the students' joy. "I will see to it that the Council rewards each of you equally. As for now, take the rest of the day to rest."

With a nod, he silently dismissed the gathered students. Port walked up to Ozpin after they had left with a deathly serious face. That was off-putting to the headmaster, as his friend had been anything but serious in the long time they had known each other.

"Is something the matter, Peter?" Ozpin asked.

"Yes, Ozpin, I'm afraid there is," Port replied.

"Oh? Is this a matter best shared behind closed doors?" Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Port replied.

Ozpin could tell something was wrong. Gone was the jovial man that loved to tell stories with lessons hidden deep within. Before him instead was a man that had seen or heard something that had distressed him.

"I see. Follow me to my office, then," Ozpin said.

The three gathered walked out of the auditorium and made their way to the tall tower after which the academy was named after. Ozpin took his seat behind his desk, as per usual, while Glynda stood by his side and Port sat on the other side of the desk.

"So, Peter, what happened down there?" Ozpin asked. "I can only assume what's troubling you happened during the hunt."

"That it did, friend," Port answered. "Ozpin…that Grimm…"

Port shook his head.

"It spoke to me."

**/ / /**

Apollyon found very familiar thoughts in his head, mainly those of pain and fury, as he reflected on what had just transpired. He had let those humans trick him and defeat him. He could only hope that they actually believed he was dead, with him using his smoky appearance to fool them. He could scarcely believe he was alive, let alone able to use the ability that barely saved him from death. He had activated it at last second in some vain hope that it would lessen the impact, and it seemed it had. However, while he certainly was not dead, he was not exactly in a good state of health, either. Existing itself was pure agony. His entire left side, the side he had landed on, was absolutely covered in pain and completely numb at the same time. His left foreleg, however, was what worried him the most. It was bent at a very worrying angle, and could not be moved without sending pain jolting up the appendage. He attempted to get back up, trying as hard as he could to bear through the pain, and though it took several attempts, over a dozen howls of pain, and falling unconscious twice, he finally succeeded in standing up. He could not walk with his left foreleg, and was forced to limp. It was close to night, now, whereas he had fallen at not even midday. He needed to find a way up, to reunite with Cinder. Though, the thought of meeting up with her gave him a wholly uncomfortable feeling that he was not used to. His breathing became erratic, his eyes shifted, he felt tense, and he felt a cold sensation run up his back. Now, though, the word for this emotion became painfully clear to him. He had seen it everywhere he went, but never had he himself felt it.

The Omega felt fear.

* * *

**Hey, what do you know, I managed to continue the story! Chapter nine is out, finally! So, onto some news.**

**First of all, I want to thank all of you for reading, Favoriting, Following, and Reviewing. I also want to give a special shout-out to **Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R**, who gave me the inspiration I needed to continue the story.**

**Secondly, I want to say that this chapter was actually finished the day I posted the Intermission. But...then our internet died. A stray dog digging in our yard chose the one place he could reach the magic cable that allows me to watch cat videos and post horrible fanfiction online, and simply chewed right through it. It took a couple days to get our internet back, so I took that time to look over TOS...and then I sorta wrote two more chapters? ****Once I finish revising those, you can expect them here in the near future. Trust me.**

**Third of all, college is starting in about a month. That means one of two things. A) I won't have nearly as much time as I'd want to write TOS, or B) I'll have basically the same amount of time to write TOS. Whatever's the case, I'll post either another Intermission explaining the situation or simply have an AN giving you all the scoop.**

**That being said, I want to thank all of you again to contributing 14 Reviews, 19 Favorites, 31 Follows, and 2.5K Views! And another big thanks to Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R for giving me just the idea I needed to continue TOS.**

**Oh, and in other news, I've finally created a comprehensive doc to remind myself what exactly the GCP is, how it runs, lore, and a bunch of technical stuff that I need to remember. So, that means fun times! It's also given me a good time to reflect on where exactly the story will go...**

**Let's just say...RWBY canon is about to change. Big time. Hopefully, it'll all work out in the end, but for all I know, it will crash and burn just as hard as Ironwood's flagship. Cheers!**

**(Also, I thought I published the chapter yesterday and was so confused as to why nothing in the analytics had changed, so I'm a moron.)**


	12. Chapter 10: Changes

**X**

**Changes**

"Hello, and welcome back to Vale News Network. I'm your host, Lisa Lavender, and today we have a very special story," the woman behind the camera greeted. "Recently, stories of a pack of Beowolves terrorizing the outskirts of Vale have been circulating. Well, just yesterday, a small group of students from Beacon Academy took down the beast. I am joined by their headmaster, Ozpin, so he can give the full story."

The camera panned over to the silver-haired man. He had a mug of coffee sitting on the table, and his hands rested on his cane. He gave a curt nod before turning to Lisa.

"Thank you for having me, Lisa," he said. "The Beowolf itself was no ordinary Alpha. Though this is just a hypothesis, we at Beacon believe that it is the oldest Grimm ever recorded in Remnant's history."

"What made you come to this conclusion?" Lisa asked.

"The Grimm itself behaved much like a human would," Ozpin answered. "It would stand back, study its prey, and then use a rudimentary form of psychological warfare to make it easier to separate and defeat them. However, when brought against creatures of better cunning, it was no match."

"I see," Lisa continued. "And, how exactly did you defeat this Grimm?"

"I did not fight it. Instead, I was approached by a member of staff, Peter Port, and a fourth-year student named Bruno Orantius. Young Bruno claimed to have a plan to defeat the Beowolf," Ozpin explained. "He deduced that, should it be disoriented enough through one of his teammates' Semblances, they could buy enough time to overwhelm the Grimm with numbers and firepower. His team, BLAC, was joined by teams CFVY and PYRE, made up of second- and third-year students respectively. They chased the Beowolf all the way to the canyon, where it plummeted to its death."

"What a remarkable story, headmaster," Lisa said. "Now, here's another question. There has been talk of the fact that this Grimm, before it was defeated, managed to kill four first-year students. Are the stories true?"

Ozpin paused for a moment before sighing.

"While, technically speaking, two of them were first-years and two were initiates, it is a sad fact that the Grimm killed four of my students before its threat was fully realized," Ozpin answered. "The families of the lost have both my condolences and my apologies. Had I realized sooner that the Grimm had entered the forest, I would have postponed initiation and searched it out until we could defeat it."

"I understand," Lisa said. "That's all the time we have for now. Thank you again, headmaster, for joining us."

"It was my pleasure," he replied with a nod.

Lisa turned to the screen.

"Tune in after the break to hear our next story," Lisa stated, "about General Ironwood's campaign against a supposed terrorist organization other than the White Fang."

**/ / /**

Apollyon, after having managed to find a steep path out of the chasm, was having trouble navigating the forest. While it was not the darkness of night that gave him trouble, it was that he had never been on this side of the chasm to his knowledge, and all of the sights and scents were unfamiliar. He did not even know where to look for Cinder. Perhaps his supposed death had reached her ears. She could have already written him off as a failure. He was okay with that, as he feared the repercussions his disobeying her orders would have. What's more, those periods of darkness now gave him fear as well. No more was he in some empty, foggy void all by himself. Now, he was surrounded by mouths and eyes. The eyes looked angry, and the mouths shouted at him. They would call him a failure, a monster, all sorts of words and phrases that did not make sense. It was so loud that he sometimes found himself thrashing as he woke up. That only added more pain to his leg and side. Speaking of, the side that he landed on had suffered more than he thought. Some of the fake spikes he had been given were bent, and there was even one that had been snapped off. It was no longer in constant pain, however, so he saw that as a plus. He continued to limp through the forest, and all seemed well until he heard the engines of several of those vehicles human used to fly. He, as fast as he could, took shelter under the trees and lied down in the brush, feeling that dreadful yet unfortunately familiar feeling of fear return.

As the craft passed him by, he realized that he was shaking. He berated himself and slowly stood up out of the underbrush. He continued on his aimless trek, hoping to just find a way out of the forest. Apollyon looked down at his offending limb, and decided that things might work out better if he forced it back into its proper position. Deciding to try this idea, he sat on his haunches and unsteadily brought his other paw to it. He jerked it back and snarled at the pain that even simple touch could bring. However, he had to persevere. He gripped the foreleg and, after a moment to steel his mind, jerked it into the correct position. There was no sound to accompany it, as there might have been in humans, but the pain was just the same. He roared in agony as he fell onto his back and thrashed, only adding more pain-filled spasms to the mix. After close to two minutes, he blacked out from the pain.

**/ / /**

Cinder frowned as she looked over the news report she had just watched. It appeared that Apollyon had done exactly what she had told him not to and suffered the consequences. She called Watts.

"Why hello, Cinder girl," Watts greeted. "How are you doing?"

He glanced down at her from the Scroll and chuckled.

"My my, it appears someone's woken up on the wrong side of the bed," he added.

"Apollyon is dead," she stated bluntly.

Watts stopped and absorbed the information, looking away from the Scroll. After some moments, he looked back down.

"Cinder, this is not a matter to joke about," he responded.

"It was just on the news," Cinder explained. "A super-Grimm terrorizing the Emerald Forest was forced over a cliff by a group of children."

Watts' pace quickened, though Cinder could not tell where he was.

"Where are you?" Cinder asked.

"Currently helping with redistribution efforts in one of the GCP facilities. With Ironwood breathing down our necks, despite how adamantly the Council defends us, we've been forced to relocate," Watts answered. "I will update the records to reflect the Omega's death. Though he was no doubt my favorite of the Subjects, it is a shame he was so foolish to challenge the power of Beacon."

"Quite. How are your other little pets doing?" Cinder asked.

"The Kappa was successfully located by Tyrian and sent back to our Mistress. In no time at all, he will begin training with the Alpha," Watts replied. "More Subjects have also been reclaimed, though many are still missing. There was a close call with our Vacuan facility, but no Subjects managed to escape or were seriously harmed."

He looked off at some unknown figure.

"Excuse me one moment," Watts told her before addressing the other figure. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, in fact, you can," the other person, a woman, answered.

Footsteps filled the hall and Cinder heard safeties click off.

"What is the meaning of this, Specialist?" Watts asked, a slight tinge of anger in his voice. "I am a very busy man, and this seems very counterproductive to the Council's directive."

"On the contrary, doctor. The Council told me to arrest you," the female Specialist responded. "Recovery teams did some digging around the OLYMPUS facility and found the black box. I'm sure you know exactly where this is heading."

Watts sighed before looking back at Cinder.

"Cinder, dear, I'm afraid I will be…unavailable, for quite some time," Watts said immediately before hanging up.

Cinder's frown grew larger as she stared at the screen of her Scroll. She pocketed it and stood up.

"I am surrounded by fools," she muttered before walking away.

**/ / /**

When Apollyon finally returned to the real world, he saw that the sun was rising. He had been stuck in that hellish realm for almost the entirety of the night. He slowly stood up, whimpering when there was a jolt of pain up his leg, and continued his walk. He did not know where he was going, nor did he truly care. He only wanted to be far away from that school of warriors so he could heal his leg, however that could be accomplished. As he walked, he began feeling a growing, negative presence off in the distance. As he got closer, he could feel its strength. It was possibly the strongest amount of negativity he had ever felt. He decided to make that his destination. If nothing else, it would give him a safe haven away from humans.

Something he desperately wanted right now.

**/ / /**

Specialist Sia Argent was busy looking over reports of a possible Subject sighting in her office in AVALON, Vale's GCP Station. She had on the standard outfit of an Atlesian Specialist, but had the cap currently hanging on the back of her door. She was roughly 5'9", had a rather slim build, shoulder length silver hair, and soft green eyes. She was in the midst of reading a news article about an interview with Ozpin when she received a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said.

A man in a light blue Atlesian uniform stepped in and saluted. In large, white letters across the front of his uniform was the word "GCPSEC".

"Ma'am," he greeted.

"At ease," she responded, causing him to lower his hand. "What brings you in here?"

"An Osprey detected an Alpha and one pack member moving towards our location," the soldier stated. "Further examination of the feed has the Research Group convinced this is the OMEGA Subject."

That got Sia's full attention.

"The OMEGA Subject?" She asked. "That can't be right. It was just killed by students at Beacon."

"That's what the eggheads thought at first," the soldier replied. "But, they saw it had artificial spikes all over its body, not to mention the broken mask."

Sia leaned back in her chair.

"And it was heading in our direction?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am," the soldier answered. "They don't believe, however, that it is searching for our facility in specific."

AVALON was situated on the outskirts of Mountain Glenn. Not only did that keep it out of the public eye and within easy reach of Vale should help be required, but that also gave them a steady supply of Candidates, which had grown much more important now that the GCC had authorized Phase 2 preparations.

"How much do we know about the OMEGA?" The Specialist asked, getting out of her chair.

"We know its augmentations, trial scores, and current state of health," the soldier explained. "However, its assigned name, mental stability, and willingness to cooperate are unknown."

Sia grabbed her weapon, a glaive, and slung it over her back.

"I want a GCV and UP pattern prepared for departure. I will personally join them," she said. "I want that Osprey to maintain visual contact with the OMEGA as much as possible."

The soldier saluted before jogging out. Sia moved to S&D and smirked. The OMEGA, through the black box recording, was deemed to be the cause for the destruction of OLYMPUS. That traitor Watts, who had just been detained at ZERZURA, wanted the OMEGA for something. No one knew what, but she was going to find out.

**/ / /**

It took Apollyon two full days just to reach the edge of the well of negativity. Along the way, a lone Beowolf had taken to following him. He personally did not mind, as it was good to have company, regardless of the fact that they had little interaction with each other. The source of all the negative emotions was a ruined human city. No doubt, a bloody genocide had taken place here. As the two Grimm entered the city, Apollyon noticed how small the Grimm presence was. A place like this should have been teeming with Grimm. Yet, it was surprisingly empty. As he got closer to the heart of the city, however, he realized why. He could feel faint human presences closing in on him. It was the same kind of faint presence he had felt while in his prison. His fur bristled and he began to growl as it came closer and closer. However, he knew he could not fight them, not in his poor condition. He walked into a ruined building and lied down, the other Beowolf doing the same. The humans, however, came closer and closer. As they did, the Grimm heard the telltale signs of a vehicle, but it sounded very different from the flying ones he was used to. The vehicle stopped some one hundred feet away and he heard some sort of door opening. Several footsteps, some heavier than others, followed and began marching closer. The lighter steps sounded like the kind humans made, but the heavier ones sounded different. Instead of the thudding that typically accompanied a human's gait, there was the sound of thick flesh meeting pavement.

"Overwatch, we are closing in on target, status? Over," a male said just as all footsteps ceased.

Apollyon did not hear a response, oddly enough. He must have received one somehow, because he said something else.

"Copy. Over and out," he seemingly finished, as the footsteps resumed.

Apollyon could tell they knew where he was. The other Grimm could feel them now as well, as it got up and darted out of the building, intent on maiming them.

"Contact, dead ahead!" another human, a female, shouted.

Apollyon heard the bangs that accompanied the rifles used by his former captors, followed by the sound of steel cutting through hide. The Beowolf whimpered before another bang silenced it.

"Contact neutralized, proceeding to objective," the first man stated.

Apollyon could tell they were looking for him. However, he was in no condition to fight or run. So, he simply breathed air through his nostrils before standing up. He had to at least accept what was most probably his death with at least some dignity. After a moment, he smiled.

For once, both his instincts and mind had agreed on something.

* * *

**Hey guys, chapter ten is out! So, time for the usual chat section.**

**First off, I honestly don't know what it is, but I feel like my chapters recently have been...rather lackluster. It's just this weird feeling I have that these newer chapters aren't really stacking up. I don't know, maybe I'm just going crazy. If you have any suggestions, critiques, the like, make sure to mention them in a Review.**

**Secondly, just got a laptop, so that means I can write on the go more, which is great! Publishing on the go, though, won't be a guarantee. But still!**

**So, yeah, I hope you guys have enjoyed the story so far. Please leave a Review telling me how horrible at writing I am, and if you think I deserve it, drop a Follow or Favorite. I hope you guys stick around for eleven, and I will talk to you then. Thanks for the 15 Reviews, 19 Favorites, 32 Follows, and 2.8k Views! Ciao!**


	13. Chapter 11: The Enemy Has Come

**XI**

**The Enemy Has Come**

Apollyon stepped out from the building and quickly saw the humans that had been searching for him. In total, there were seven humans and, surprisingly, a trio of Creeps waddling with them. Three of the humans were female, and one of those females wore a different uniform than the others and was no doubt their leader. The soldiers and Grimm stopped moving and now had all their eyes on Apollyon.

"Eyes on target. Confirmed to be OMEGA, repeat, confirmed to be OMEGA," one man with a large backpack spoke as he placed two fingers against the side of his helmet.

Apollyon's fur bristled. He was right. These were the same kind of people that had captured him before. He surveyed his surroundings and detected a faint presence within the wheeled vehicle behind them. It had a large, dual barreled cannon on its top as well as what appeared to be four downscaled versions of the wings on the flying craft he had grown used to. Instead of hanging off the sides, however, they were pressed flat against its roof and were in no position to work. It was confusing to the Alpha. Also on the vehicle were small mounted weapons on its sides. They only had one barrel, but also had long sticks poking out of them. And, strangely enough, it was these smaller weapons that were pointed at him. The humans, minus the woman up front, had their weapons pointed at him. The Creeps stood obediently by the humans in the back.

"OMEGA. I am Specialist Sia Argent of the Grimm Control Program," the woman now known as Sia spoke. "We're here to take you to a nearby facility in order to heal your wounds and rehabilitate you. Are you going to come with us willingly?"

_No,_ Apollyon replied. _I refuse to be held prisoner again._

The Specialist seemed surprised that he spoke. Considering she was the one that initiated the conversation, it should have come as no shock for him to respond. Apollyon was always confused by humans and their reactions to seemingly commonplace things. Thoughts aside, the woman shook her head and looked back at him.

"I see. Then we will have to take you back by force," she announced. "Sedate him."

The smaller guns on the vehicle, of which Apollyon could see three, fired at once. Three small darts shot out almost silently and impacted against his hide. He could scarcely even move before the world began to twist, turn, and blur. He stumbled side to side before weakly growling. He stepped towards the Specialist and almost tripped and fell. The entire time, she was smirking. He snarled and pounced. He never even made it three feet before he hit the ground and blacked out.

**/ / /**

Sia slung her glaive over her back and turned to the GCPSEC forces.

"Let's get him loaded and back at the GCRE,"

They saluted and holstered their rifles before marching over with the Creeps. The men and women took hold of the OMEGA's limbs and attempted to lift him.

"This is one heavy son of a bitch, isn't it?" asked one of the men.

"Yeah. One moment," a woman replied before letting go and turning to the Creeps. "Joker, Queenie, Ace, help us out here."

The three Creeps nodded and waddled over to the large Alpha. They dug their heads under its torso and helped with lifting its center of mass. The woman returned to helping lift its right hind leg and, in almost no time at all now, the Beowolf was lifted. They slowly moved to the back of the GCV, or Grimm Capture Vehicle, and gently rested the Beowolf in it.

"We should've brought in a Heavy with how heavy this one is," the man from earlier remarked.

"We got him in, though," the woman replied.

"Fair enough," the man conceded as he stepped in.

The woman and the other GCPSEC forces entered as well, followed by the Specialist and then the Creeps. The rear hatch closed and the GCV turned back around for AVALON.

**/ / /**

When Apollyon finally awoke, he found himself in a dreadfully familiar situation. He slowly got up, body aching, and found himself in a large, circular, white room. High up on the wall were the muted presences of humans. Before him was a large metal door, and above him was the same. He noticed that, not only was his shoulder fixed, but his missing spike had also been replaced. His leg still hurt, though, and he felt a foreign weight on it. He looked and saw a strange metal apparatus encompassing the joint and some of the leg around it. It still hurt to walk with it, but not nearly as much as it used to. He limped around the room to see if anything was different here, but it was the exact same as the previous. An alarm blared and the ground door opened. Apollyon turned to it and saw twelve of the metal soldiers the humans used walk in, followed by a strange flying soldier. It was unlike the small, fragile ones that stalked him occasionally in the previous prison. This one was larger, maybe a bit larger than two Creeps standing right next to each other. It had a pair of spinning guns, much like the weapon of that girl from the forest, though these were noticeably smaller. The woman known as Sia walked in after them and the door closed.

"OMEGA," she greeted. "I take it you can walk better?"

Apollyon had noticed that his limp was much less pronounced now.

_What of it?_ He asked._ I am still a prisoner here. And like with my last prison, I will leave this one with the blood of your soldiers in my fur._

"We don't want to hurt you, OMEGA," Sia assured. "I am merely here to ask questions. These AK-130s and Hawk Suppressor Drone are here for my safety."

Apollyon narrowed his eyes and noticed she herself had not brought a weapon. He found that strange. He limped forward and lied down, knowing it didn't matter where he was in the room. He would probably get shot before he could try anything funny anywhere in there.

_On one condition,_ he stated.

"And that is?" She asked.

_You will answer my questions in turn,_ he declared, unsure of where the idea came from.

The woman raised an eyebrow.

"That is all?" She asked, not believing him.

_Yes,_ he answered.

"Very well," she said. "Question one: do you have a given name?"

_Given name?_ Apollyon asked.

"A name besides OMEGA," she stated. "OMEGA is your designation as the final Subject."

Apollyon thought for a moment before responding.

_Apollyon was the name given to me by Watts,_ he answered.

The woman pulled out a metal device and poked at it before looking back up at him.

"Your turn," she said.

Apollyon closed his eyes in thought again before looking at her.

_Why is it that I have been given a brain and these strange powers?_ He asked.

"We at the GCP believe that the only way to combat the Grimm threat effectively is to better understand our enemy and, if possible, recruit them to our cause," she answered. "To do that, however, we needed a way to communicate. So, we gave you a human brain so you may better comprehend our language and speak it yourself. The enhancements and augmentations were added into the mix so you could serve as a far better fighter than your regular counterparts."

Apollyon nodded, that part of his questioning mind put to rest.

"Question two," she started, "how are you able to communicate without compatible vocal cords?"

_What do you mean?_ Apollyon asked, confused as to how something like that could work.

"Right now, air is vibrating off of my vocal cords and producing sounds in patterns we call speech. Grimm, however, lack vocal cords capable of such sounds, and vocal cords in general, hence why we have to artificially implant them," she said. "You, however, are not even moving your mouth, yet I can hear you. Looking over the report from our earlier encounter, no one except me could hear you. Add to the fact that your file states you could not receive vocal cords, and that leads me only to one possible outcome."

She paused, lowering her device.

"I want to know how you learned telepathy," she stated plainly. "I want to know how you gained the ability to implant your thoughts in someone else's head."

_Strange. I always assumed I spoke just the same as you humans,_ Apollyon said. _I remember learning how to speak after meeting my Mother. She told me to speak, and I did._

Sia brought the device back up and poked and prodded at it before motioning for him to ask a question.

_Why aren't you killing me?_ He asked. _I am personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds and thousands of humans and these metal soldiers of yours. Most other humans would enjoy the power you hold over me currently and use it to end me._

"It would be counterproductive," Sia answered. "Our goal here is to find a way to forge a working relationship between Grimm and man. If we simply gunned down every Grimm we met, that would make it more difficult to do so, wouldn't you agree?"

Apollyon nodded, understanding her perspective.

"Question three, Apollyon," Sia announced. "Who is this Mother you and many other Subjects and Candidates speak of?"

_She is our Mother, just as you said,_ Apollyon answered. _She gives birth to us, she watches over us, she cares for us. Without her, we would be as simple as rabbits and other beasts._

He glared at her.

_Make no mistake, however, to assume that she is the reason we hunt down humanity,_ he added. _My rage against your race is my own nature._

"But who is she?" Sia asked, slightly aggravated at the vague answer that almost every other Subject and Candidate had given as well.

_That's two questions, Specialist Sia,_ Apollyon noted. _I hope you will be giving me two in turn._

Sia was about to speak, but Apollyon interrupted her.

_Her name is Salem. I don't see how this information helps you,_ Apollyon answered bluntly. _Now, I get two questions of my own._

Sia poked at the device and nodded.

_Why is it that some humans have antlers?_ He asked.

"Those are known as Faunus," she answered. "They're humans born with animal traits, such as the aforementioned antlers. They can also have ears, tails, claws, wings, fins, and the like. Many also have night vision, heightened strength or agility, and other abilities."

_I have fought and killed numerous humans over the course of my existence,_ he started. _Some have strange barriers that prevent me from doing so quickly. What is it?_

"That is an Aura," she answered. "It's a projection of our soul, and it acts as both a sword and a shield. It protects us and at the same time makes us stronger."

Apollyon thought this would be an excellent addition to his own arsenal. Sia's next words, however, dispelled that notion.

"However, Grimm possess no souls," Sia continued. "Our testing only confirms that, even with the remains of the soul found in your human brain, it is impossible for you to unlock an Aura or generate a Semblance."

She cleared her throat.

"I have more questions, if you're willing," she stated.

_I have nothing else to do, aside from planning my escape,_ Apollyon clarified. _There is nothing but time for me to answer your questions._

"But are you willing to answer them?" She asked. "It doesn't matter if you can or not, it's whether you want to or not."

Apollyon thought long and hard on that. He still had some questions he wanted to ask as well. On the other hand, though, he wanted to be left alone so he could find a way out of here. He also was still wary of the weapons being pointed at him. In mere moments, he could be taken down by the sheer volume of the firepower pointed at him. Even if he did get out of here, they no doubt knew of his deeds at the other prison and had prepared even more so than the previous. He also did not have anyone to open the door for him. The odds were stacked against him. Then, he thought about her phrasing. What he wanted. He did not understand it, want. He was a Grimm, a creature working solely on instinct and nature. Before he received his brain, he would not even think about having a conversation with a human.

_What is want?_ He asked.

"…What do you mean?" She asked.

_Want. I don't understand it's meaning, what it is supposed to mean to you humans,_ he clarified.

"That's just the thing," she answered. "Want changes depending on the person. Overall, it is defined as a person's desire for something that they don't necessarily require to survive. You can want something as abstract as compassion or companionship, or something as realistic as a Scroll or the newest X-Ray and Vav comic. However, different people have different wants."

She stared directly into the Grimm's crimson eyes.

"So, let me ask you again," she started. "Apollyon…what do you want?"

* * *

**Chapter eleven, and so soon after ten! Yay! So, onto my personal thoughts and other such things.**

**Firstly, I feel like I under performed with this chapter. I've had this feeling a lot with recent chapters, but the effect is lessened here to an extent. I also believe this is the most dialogue heavy chapter I've ever written. Then again, that's what interviews tend to be like.**

**Secondly, I want to ask a question to all of you: do you want longer chapters? Currently, I've been making sure to keep chapters between 2k to 3k words, but I want to know if you guys feel that is too short or just right. Let me know in a Review if you wish.**

**Third of all, I just want to say thank you for 19 Reviews, 22 Favorites, 33 Followers, and 3k+ Views! I honestly never thought I'd get even close to this.**

**Thanks again for all the support and I can't wait to continue the story. We're slowly getting close to a huge tipping point that will mark the beginning of bigger canon divergence. So far, the most divergence we've really had is the murder of some OCs leading to stricter rules at Beacon. However, things will be changing for RWBY canon soon. I hope you guys stick around until then. I will catch you guys in chapter twelve, which may or may not be longer. Who knows? Thanks and ciao!**


	14. Chapter 12: Further Study

**XII**

**Further Study**

Apollyon looked inside himself. Past the brain and past the instincts, he found an empty void. He was alone there. There was no fog. There were no angry eyes, furrowed brows, or shouting mouths. There was just him and the unending blackness. In the distance, however, there was a faint light. He walked towards it, noticing how he had no limp here. When he reached it, he was blinded for a brief moment before he found himself in a human city. Flames burned in the streets and buildings that had been destroyed. Dead humans and metal soldiers littered the streets as well. He felt a familiar wetness on his paws and he looked down to find the portly man that helped those children hunt him. Of course, Apollyon's claws were also buried in the man's torso and he was very dead. He pulled his paws out and planted them on the street. He heard the sounds of fighting down the street and sprinted over, no longer limping. He saw Specialist finishing off an Ursa. She had not noticed him. He sneaked around her until he was certain he was in her blind spot, and pounced. She turned at the last moment and everything seemed to slow down. Her eyes widened in fear, she was not fast enough to swing her weapon, her mouth was opening to scream. His claws glistened in the shattered moon light, giving the blood on them a sickly gleam. Just before he reached her, though, he blinked and found himself back in the white room. He looked at Sia.

_I want to get revenge and destroy you_, he finally answered. _I want to be the end of everything you humans hold dear._

"Now that you understand what want is, Apollyon, do you want to continue with the questions?" She asked.

_Yes_, Apollyon answered almost immediately.

He could sense a new feeling swell within him at the prospect of questioning. It was not an uncomfortable feeling, but a very demanding one. He looked around the room and began noticing more things about himself as he did. It was as if that look within had reopened his eyes.

"Excellent," Sia said with a barely hidden smile. "Question four: was Watts in any way connected to this Salem?"

_I believe so_, Apollyon answered. _He brought me to her, and from there I was given my mission. I can tell you nothing else._

"I see," she said. "It's your turn."

_I have seen numerous humans with silver eyes. They have a power unlike any other human I've met. Why is that?_ He asked.

"We simply don't know," Sia answered. "Stories of the heroic deeds and insurmountable feats of people with silver eyes have persisted since the beginning of recorded history. It could be a gift of the gods for all we know."

Apollyon grumbled, unsatisfied that he could not get a good answer.

"Question five," she announced. "During your time close to the city of Vale, it was stated that you died fighting a group of students. What actually happened?"

_The students lured me into a trap and outnumbered and outsmarted me. When I realized this, I ran_, Apollyon explained. _I was cornered at the edge of a chasm. With no other choice, I jumped. Using the ability granted to me by my mask, I barely survived the fall. From there, I tried to find a way out to reconnect with my overseer. However, I soon after decided that I could not bear the repercussions of my disobeying her orders, and instead decided to find a place far away from humans to heal._

He gazed around him.

_You can see how well my plan turned out, he finished._

Sia chuckled as she poked at the device. She looked at Apollyon.

"That concludes my questioning. Unless you have any questions of your own, I will leave," she stated.

Apollyon thought about his last question. He did not want to ask more than one, as that would make him sound too eager and giver her leverage over him. He decided on one question in particular, one that had haunted him since the beginning of all of this.

_Why is it that I was chosen, that I was given the ability to think and feel?_ He asked.

Sia pocketed her device and spoke.

"Specialist Verzand was stationed at OLYMPUS in Atlas when he caught wind of rumors of a Grimm that had been terrorizing the outskirts of the Kingdom for at least a century," she answered. "He set out, and found you. You fit all of the descriptions, and he knew you were the perfect Subject for the Program."

She stood up.

"Considering what's happened to OLYMPUS, and what you've done since then, I'm inclined to believe he was correct," she said. "You have the strongest equal set of augmentations, even stronger than the current Candidates', and have the implants of not one, but two, Grimm in you."

She turned and made to leave the room. Before she left, however, she had some parting words.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Apollyon," she added. "I hope I get to work with you again, soon."

She passed through the doors with the AK-130s and the Hawk before they shut. Apollyon was alone again, mostly. He gazed up at the humans hidden behind the wall and stood up. He stretched, mildly wincing from the pain still partially present in his shoulder, and decided to lie back down. Perhaps it would get better if he rested. His eyes closed and he found himself back in the void. This time, however, its fog and darkness was comforting to him, rather than foreboding or scary.

**/ / /**

Sia looked over the interview with the OMEGA and added any useful data to his file. She also forwarded a copy of the interview both to the Director of the Station and to the GCC for further study by the Security Committee. Talking with Apollyon had been an interesting experience. Most Subjects and even Candidates still struggled with speech occasionally, but he had no problem with speaking to her. He seemed more literate than even some people. Curious, she looked over the files from the OLYMPUS black box again. After sifting through the slightly corrupted files, she found his medical examination report. She scrolled through it until she found his estimated age. Reading it over, she realized why he would be so intelligent: he was estimated to be well over a millennium old. Their own examination of his wound also confirmed this, though their equipment was, strangely, having difficulty placing an exact age. She looked and noticed that Watts was the leading surgeon. There was no way this was a coincidence in her eyes. Through his connection to this Salem figure, he knew far more about the Grimm than anyone at the GCP. If he could be…coerced, into giving up any and all information, the GCP could dramatically accelerate Phase 2. She added that note to the GCC's message and turned off her desk Scroll. She leaned back in her chair and thought more about her interview with Apollyon.

It was a very enlightening experience, on top of easily being the most interesting of all her interviews. He had been very helpful in giving the GCP knowledge about the Grimm, but at the same time, he very obviously held information back. He was also surprisingly cooperative with her, which was unfortunately not a trait shared by most Subjects. The only one that had ever been willing to cooperate on multiple occasions was IOTA. She snapped her fingers and turned her desk Scroll back on to browse through the examiner report of Apollyon one last time. She found the note she was hoping she would.

_It should be noted that the OMEGA's procedure will push any and all boundaries previously set by the other members of the Subject Initiative. In addition to having the most rounded out and powerful set of enhancements, the OMEGA will also have two Grimm splices. The first will be the venom of a King Taijitu, which is capable of being both injected into prey through bites and spit through the OMEGA's upper canine teeth. The second will be the first Subject-on-Subject transplant: the mask of the IOTA will be grafted into the chest of the OMEGA. In theory, this should give him the ability to become incorporeal and smoke-like, much like a Geist is in its natural state._

_However, a possible side-effect would be some of IOTA's personality quirks transferring over. While not probable to be detrimental, this will make the OMEGA very unpredictable in its choices, as it will have, essentially, two consciousnesses in addition to the mind of Roseus. A very odd twist on the story of a man with two souls, indeed. We now have a Grimm that has the mind of a man, its own "mind", and the "mind" of another Grimm that, at one point, had the minds of several men and women. IOTA was a very strange Subject, but the most enlightening due to how many brains it was given. Perhaps the OMEGA will be the same?_

Sia made a note on her Scroll about that entire excerpt and mulled it over. This would mean that Apollyon has a high chance to develop mental disorders. She quickly sifted the GCP files and found a report on IOTA. What she read made her grimace.

_Paimon [The IOTA] has been acting strangely, recently. It has been approximately seven months since its medical trial, and it has been showing differences in standard behavioral patterns. It has begun mimicking the voices of the men and women that once dwelled within the minds it holds in its massive body. Occasionally, it will create smoky visages of these people and have them interact with each other. Though Paimon has been without a doubt the single smartest entity to ever exist, having been gifted with the minds of some former scientists and researchers both within and outside of the GCP, and has been absolutely critical in the advancement of Grimm studies, others within the Station believe it [the IOTA] to be in a very worrying condition. A psychologist was brought in and told to evaluate the Subject. After two hours of questioning, it was revealed that the IOTA, in addition to dissociative identity disorder, has likely developed: schizophrenia, sociopathy, depersonalization, derealization, and schizoid personality disorder._

Sia looked back at the time frame and then perused earlier reports. She noticed that the IOTA had been showing symptoms for some of these as early as three months after his medical trial. Apollyon was slowly getting closer and closer to that stage of development. She turned off her desk Scroll. She did not want to learn what other ugly fates could be awaiting their newest Subject.

**/ / /**

The alarms blared again, causing Apollyon to get up and stretch, once more eliciting a wince of pain. During his rest, he had been reflecting on this new look at himself. He was somewhat hoping Sia would walk in and let him ask more questions, even though she was responsible for capturing him once more. This strange feeling of wanting to know more had him entranced with the idea of sitting down and talking. Through the large doors walked none other than the Specialist, but this time, she had her weapon. That had Apollyon on edge. He gave off a short and low snarl as the doors closed behind her. She kept her distance, strangely.

_Have you finally decided to kill me?_ He asked, slowly shifting into a battle stance.

"What? No," Sia answered. "I wanted to enter alone, but the Director wouldn't allow me to without my weapon."

_Then what do you want?_ Apollyon asked. _More answers?_

"No. It's time for you to begin PT," she replied.

_Pee…tee?_ He asked.

"It stands for physical therapy," she explained. "Whenever a person or animal injures one or more of their limbs, we put them through exercises so they can nurse it back to health and get reacquainted with it."

He looked down at his leg.

_But it hurts to walk on this_, he said, looking back at her.

"Well, it won't serve you any good to not walk on it," she rebutted. "Don't you want to be back at peak condition?"

He looked back at his leg before looking at her. After a moment, he limped towards her.

_How does this work?_ He asked.

"Well, we have a special training regimen for Grimm considering they have some limited regenerative qualities and a lack of a true skeleton," she started. "First, we start with a checkup on the limb to see how sensitive it is. Grimm we've augmented tend to be a bit more sensitive to pain and more likely to let it influence their actions. That's just a byproduct of your brain, unfortunately."

She grabbed her glaive, causing Apollyon to tense. She twirled it around in her hands before tossing it aside. She knelt down in front of him.

"I need you to come over here and let me look over your leg. It will probably hurt," she said.

He walked over and held out his injured leg. She tentatively reached her hands over and began rubbing and pressing at certain parts. Apollyon hissed and winced with almost every touch. At one point, he yanked his limb back and growled.

"Apollyon, I need to finish the check-up," she stated.

He glanced at his leg before slowly reaching it back out to her. She gave a few last presses before letting go and standing up.

"Good news, Apollyon. You're leg has healed really well already," she announced. "However, PT is still required. Are you ready?"

_Yes_, he answered.

"Alright. We'll start with a walking pace around the room," she said. "Then, we'll slowly increase the speed. Walking to jogging, jogging to sprinting."

She paused.

"After that, we'll move on to jumping, pouncing, climbing, and attacking," she continued. "Once we've gotten all of that done, I'll become your Handler and we start on missions."

_I am not a pet_, he replied coldly. _I will not blindly follow you into my death._

"And _I_ will make sure to not lead you there, too," she assured the Grimm. "I quite enjoy working with Grimm. I find them very interesting. I'd rather not get my companions killed."

She motioned for him to follow.

"You can limp to the wall, but once we start the exercise, you'll need to use all four of your legs," she said.

He grunted and the two made their way to the wall and Sia looked at him expectantly.

"Let's begin," she said.

Apollyon unsteadily placed his injured leg on the ground and began slowly walking. His gait was very lopsided, with every step using his injured foot causing him to lurch down. Sia walked alongside him, occasionally giving him words of encouragement. He found them actually helpful. He expected it to grow annoying very quick, but he found it rather nice to hear her cheering him on and congratulating him with every small bit of progress he made. As the hours wore on, he was able to move to jogging already. Eventually, though, a beeping sound was heard. Sia slowed down and stopped before pulling out her device. Apollyon stopped soon after and turned around to look at her.

"Ah, it appears my time is up for now," she stated. "I'll be back tomorrow to continue, though."

She walked over to him and pat him on the head, causing him to shrink back. She chuckled.

"It was nice working with you, Apollyon," she said. "You've been much better behaved than the other Subjects I've worked with."

Apollyon nodded before Sia waved.

"See you tomorrow," she finished before turning and walking away, pocketing the device.

Apollyon lied down and could feel his body aching. This physical therapy felt more strenuous than anything he had ever done before. However, he felt content. He could not believe he was thinking it, but he actually kind of liked the company of that human.

Still, he could not wait to kill her and get out of here.

**/ / /**

Apollyon decided the next day that he would continue his therapy while Sia was not present. She had already told him the entire regimen, so he got up, stretched, winced, and trotted to the wall of the enclosure. Once there, he began with a bit more walking practice. It still hurt, and he also found himself unconsciously keeping his leg off the ground, but he did his best in forcing it down and walking on it. After he did an hour of walking, he began his jogging. As he finished his second lap, the alarms blared. He slowed down to a stop as the large door opened. Sia walked back in and, shortly after, the doors closed. He walked over to her.

"Looks like you started without me," she greeted with a light smile.

_I found it faster to start therapy on my own_, Apollyon replied.

"Right. Well, I still need to do the checkup," she said.

Apollyon held out his paw to her and she got to work. While he still winced and hissed at the pain, this time, he did not yank his paw back. When she was done, she smiled.

"You're already doing better. If we keep it up at this pace, you'll be ready for missions by the end of the week," she declared.

_What will my missions be like?_ He asked as the two began jogging around the enclosure.

"Well, it depends," she said. "You could assist on Grimm capture, retrieving AWOL Candidates or Subjects, eliminating Fang cells, the like."

_Fang cells?_ He asked.

"Oh, that's what we call groups of White Fang members," she answered. "They give the Faunus a bad image and also kill innocent people. If we want to help the world, we need to get rid of them."

_Hmm_, Apollyon hummed.

Sia chuckled before looking at him.

"Now I get to ask _you_ two questions," she said.

Apollyon cursed himself. He had let his curiosity get the best of him.

_Fine_, he gave up.

"Okay, first question: have you been feeling well, mentally?" She asked.

_…I'm not sure I know what that means,_ he said honestly.

"Well, have you been seeing or hearing things lately? Possibly not feeling in control of your actions or thoughts?" She explained.

_No_, he answered before smiling. _And now, since you've asked three questions, I get an additional one._

She brought out her hand and started counting. After double and triple checking, she clenched her fist and groaned.

"Oum damn it, just when I thought I had gotten you," she complained.

Apollyon smiled again. The interaction was foreign to him, but it made him feel strangely nice. He began thinking of a question.

_Why do you like helping me?_ He asked. _I rarely feel negative emotions on you whenever you are talking to me or helping me._

"Well, when I was growing up in Atlas, I liked learning and I liked animals," she said. "I wanted to be a veterinarian and animal researcher. However, when I started learning more about Grimm, I found that they were even more amazing and mysterious than any animal on Remnant."

She looked at him.

"I became a Specialist because it was the best way to get up close and personal with Grimm while also being able to defend myself," she continued. "Well, during my time as a Specialist, the GCP took notice of me and contacted me. They basically asked me if I wanted to work my dream job, so I said yes immediately."

She looked back ahead as they jogged.

"At first, I was only ever keeping track of security and other non-Grimm things. Then, the Subject Initiative began. I got to work with Grimm, finally!" She exclaimed before calming herself down. "I helped develop a bunch of stuff that was used, and I actually worked at OLYMPUS at first. But, I was transferred to YGGDRASIL over in Mistral once the Initiative began. After AVALON was made in Vale, I requested a transfer there. I got it, and here I am."

She smiled again.

"I worked with EPSILON and ZETA for a while, but then, OMICRON was brought into OLYMPUS," she said, her smile dropping. "His escape shortly thereafter triggered a mass of escapes all across Remnant from all of the Stations. The other Subjects heard us fretting about OMICRON and decided to replicate it. They all escaped, except the ones that were also at OLYMPUS. Then, one by one, the Subjects started dying."

She hesitated for a moment.

"I was really worried about EPSILON and ZETA. I had grown attached. I am _still_, attached…" She said. "They were found not too long ago and are currently held in YGGDRASIL. It was through that that I learned just how much I love working with Grimm, and how they aren't really too different from people when you start to work with them."

She looked at Apollyon.

"You were always the most interesting Subject to me. Sure, the BETA was made up of I don't even know how many Grimm, and then there was IOTA, but you were special," she said. "You are the only Subject that is partially responsible for the destruction of a whole Station, you are the oldest recorded Grimm…ever, and you showed intelligence not even shown in IOTA. When I learned you were in Vale, I was amazed."

She smiled.

"And here you are," she finished. "That's why I'm happy whenever I'm around you."

Apollyon was content with that answer. He felt comfortable enough to begin running, now. He quickly learned, however, it hurt much more than jogging. He bore through it, if only for his pride to remain intact. He glanced at Sia, keeping pace with him and not even breaking a sweat. She was strange. It was not everyday that he heard of a human liking Grimm. Then again, it was not every day that a Grimm sat down and spoke with a human. They typically liked tearing out the throats of humans or otherwise killing them. He also felt a strange connection with her. He blinked and shook his head. He was a Grimm. He would kill her, eventually.

And Oum damn it, he was going to enjoy it.

**/ / /**

"Breaking news! I'm your host, Lisa Lavender, and you're watching Vale News Network!" Lisa greeted. "Our story today is centered around Atlas. Recently, a terrorist attack was conducted by the White Fang that killed the members of the Council during one of their meetings. The Kingdom has entered a state of emergency and marshal law has been declared by General James Ironwood."

An image appeared. It showed the Council chambers as AK-200s and Atlesian soldiers kept civilians back as other soldiers investigated the building. It appeared to be taken from a Bullhead.

"So far, no official election dates have been given. The General of the Atlesian Navy was willing to contact us on the matter," Lisa continued before the video changed.

The screen was split in half. On the left half sat Lisa, and on the right stood Ironwood. He appeared to be on the bridge of his flagship.

"We're glad you could join us, General," Lisa thanked.

"I felt it was necessary, Miss Lavender, to explain what happened," Ironwood explained. "As you've already stated, the White Fang was indeed responsible. The evidence that first responders were able to find supported this. The Council was in the middle of a conference with the Valean Council to talk about the Vytal Festival when a small bomb was set off at a fountain in one of Atlas' parks, obliterating the landmark and injuring close to a dozen civilians."

He took in a breath.

"However, this was a diversion. While teams were being sent in to investigate and emergency teams were being coordinated, they managed to remotely hack into the AK-two-hundred units guarding the Council chambers and killed the remaining guards stationed. Then, they proceeded to storm the room the conference was being held in and executed the Atlesian Council before they could escape," he continued. "When we learned about this, we quickly deactivated the units and traced the source of their last given command. We pinpointed the location to a small apartment complex on the other side of the city. At this time, the hackers remain at large, but they have been confirmed to be members of the White Fang."

"This seems like a major security concern, General," Lisa commented. "If a small group of terrorists could hack into such an important location and cause this much damage, I can only imagine what they could do with more time and resources. How do you plan to prevent another attack like this happening?"

"Firstly, we plan on upgrading the security of Atlesian military networks. Secondly, we will start replacing robotic units with organic soldiers for such important locations," Ironwood answered. "After that has been done, we're going to triple our efforts in quelling the White Fang presence in the Kingdom of Atlas, and then the world as a whole."

"I see," Lisa said. "Another concern we have is the possible rescheduling of the Vytal Festival. Will this attack, in any way, hinder the festivities?"

"At this time, we are cleaning up at both the park and in the chambers. As we do that, we will start up elections," Ironwood stated. "If everything goes to plan, we should have an entirely new Council before the Festival."

"It is good to see that the Vytal Festival will go as planned," Lisa said. "Thank you again for joining us, General."

"I'm glad I could clear up the details surrounding the attack," Ironwood replied.

The General disappeared and Lisa took up the screen once more.

"There you have it," Lisa closed. "Tune in tomorrow for out story on the rumors of more of these super-Grimm showing up."

Ozpin paused the news feed and sighed. He quickly texted Glynda, Peter, and Bart to join him in his office. Once he did so, he dialed up Qrow. Qrow picked up.

"Oz? Something wrong?" He asked. "You don't normally call me while I'm on a mission."

"Yes, something is very wrong, Qrow," Ozpin replied.

The teachers walked in.

"Please, have a seat," he said as he transferred Qrow's video call to his desk Scroll. "Qrow, do you remember that super-Grimm I briefly mentioned?"

"Yeah, I remember," Qrow replied. "I thought it was dead."

"While that is certainly not out of the question, we have more pressing matters pertaining to it," Ozpin said. "Mainly, that it wasn't the only one."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Qrow pulled out his flask and sighed.

"I should've had more whiskey on hand if I had known you were gonna drop that on me," he replied before downing the rest. "So, what do you mean there are more?"

Ozpin was going to continue, but received another call. This one was from Ironwood. He merged it with Qrow's call and now the desk Scroll showed the two of them.

"Ozpin, I'm sure you just heard the news," Ironwood said.

"Indeed. That was precisely why I contacted Qrow and brough Peter, Bart, and Glynda here," Ozpin replied. "I take it there is more to add?"

"What'd I miss?" Qrow asked.

"Earlier today, I had to leave Vacuo when I learned that the entire Atlesian Council was executed by their own guards," Ironwood explained. "Then, when I tuned in to the news network here in Atlas shortly after my interview, I saw that there was going to be a report on super-Grimm. What's odd is that every news station, blog, and social media platform is buzzing about rumors of super-Grimm at the moment."

"Yeah, Oz just said that," Qrow replied.

Ironwood groaned and furrowed his brow.

"What I was about to say was that I've seen some, recently," Ironwood stated. "One was in Atlas. It was a Deathstalker that shot my men with a Dust cannon and had large metal shields attached to its claws. What makes this worse is that the Dust cannon used was almost an exact match to the one found on the Colossus in Argus."

"And the others, dare I ask?" Ozpin said.

"Ozpin, there was an entire facility full of them in Vacuo," Ironwood announced. "There was also one in Atlas, not even far from the capital. There is also one in Mistral, on the coast. Each one has more of these super-Grimm."

"That attack in Atlas wasn't really by the White Fang, was it, James?" Ozpin asked.

"That's what the evidence said, at first," Ironwood revealed. "However, further analysis suggests that the White Fang was actually framed."

"Wait, wait, wait," Qrow butt in. "You're telling me that, not only is Atlas without a government, but there's also _another_ Remnant-spanning terrorist organization that is possibly even more well-equipped than the Fang?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying, and that's what's worrying me," Ironwood answered. "Oz, if they attack again, target another Council, hell, target all of them…"

"It could spell the end of our little shadow war," Ozpin finished. "They will not stop with the Councils. They'll start targeting academies. If they have even a handful more of these super-Grimm, then our chances are slim."

Ozpin cleared his throat.

"Qrow, your mission is changing. I want you to find out everything you can about this third party. James, if you would, send him everything you know already," Ozpin ordered, to which both men nodded. "Qrow, anything you find out about them, give to me and James. Peter, I'll hand you everything I can so you can find a weakness within these Grimm."

The portly man nodded. Ozpin turned to Bart.

"Bart, look through all of these sightings as well. If you can find anything out, let me know immediately," Ozpin continued, causing the green-haired man to nod rapidly. "And lastly, Glynda, I want you to connect with Peter and prepare field-trips for our students. I don't want to have to do this, but they must be prepared should any of these super-Grimm attack the school again. Devise strategies with Peter that will take them down."

The blonde huntress nodded.

"Good. The Vytal Festival is drawing very, very close. This organization may or may not work with _her_. Regardless, they will likely target the Festival," Ozpin said with grave seriousness. "The world as a whole is experiencing peace it never has before. However, this organization seeks to break that peace, which is already being strained by the likes of the White Fang. We cannot allow that to happen."

They all nodded. The Beacon faculty members stood up and left, whereas Ironwood hung up. All that remained were Ozpin and Qrow.

"Oz, if anything happens to my nieces…" He started.

"I will make sure nothing does, Qrow. You have my word," Ozpin reassured the man.

"Thanks," Qrow said before hanging up.

Ozpin sighed. He had said that it was going to be an interesting school year during initiation, but this was not what he had meant.

* * *

**So, chapter twelve. It's easily the longest chapter yet, being over 5k words. Hopefully, you guys find that length agreeable. So, onto plans and such.**

**Firstly, I hope I'm doing well portraying Apollyon. Right now, some stuff is going on in his head that he's not even aware of, and that noe of you guys know about. However, expect some info on that in the next intermission, which will hopefully be up tomorrow.**

**Speaking of intermissions, there is going to be a week-long break coming up, and then chapters might start slowing down. The reason for the slow down is that college is starting up, _very soon_. I still don't know how much it'll affect my writing schedule, but I'm hoping it won't affect it too much.  
**

**Third of all, I want to ask you guys something. In these intermissions, do you want to see some cut scenes and glimpses of what could've been? Just something that came into my mind, not sure of what everyone wants to know about previous versions of TOS.**

**Lastly, I want to thank every single one of you for sticking around to chapter twelve. Writing has turned out far better than I could have ever hoped, and I'm enjoying every second of it. So, thank you all, really, for: 20 Reviews, 24 Favorites, 35 Follows, and 3.7k Views. Knowing that people are enjoying what I do is mainly the reason I'm doing it. So, thanks again, and I will catch you all in the intermission tomorrow (or the day after). Ciao!**

**I just realized that, as I was about to post this, Apollyon's speech hasn't been appearing in italics since chapter nine, sooo...when I release the intermission, I'll also fix that up. Sorry!**


	15. Intermission 3: Update, Hiatus, Plans

**We've reached our third intermission people. Onto business. Within this intermission is some lore, a cut scene, and an announcement. I hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

**Story Tidbit**

Subject: Further Plans

To: [DATA EXPUNGED], [DATA EXPUNGED], [DATA EXPUNGED], [DATA EXPUNGED]

From: [DATA EXPUNGED]

Greetings. As you all well know, OPERATION CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT was a complete success. The Atlesian government has been destabilized, and emergency primary elections are beginning. Our agents have already begun campaigns. Within the month, the victors will be selected and, if everything goes according to plan, we will have complete control of Atlas. After that, it will be trivial to push Ironwood out of the way permanently. Then, Phase 2 can proceed largely uninterrupted.

In other news, some previously missing Subjects have been recovered. The EPSILON, ZETA, and OMEGA Subjects have been returned to containment and are currently going through rehabilitation. Parties are currently tracking down the ETA and NU Subjects as well, and the rogue Candidate identified as Brutus was recaptured and sent to ZERZURA for rehabilitation. There have also been unconfirmed sightings of the MU and XI Subjects. As of now, your current directive is to capture and condition Candidates for Phase 2. Once we gain the seats on the Council, Phase 2 can leave the preparation phase.

Also, the plans for the construction of AZTLÁN have been canceled, as a secondary Vacuan Station was deemed unnecessary. ELYSIAN is nearing the final construction stages, and EDEN and ATLANTIS have exited the planning phase and will soon enter construction. Once the Stations have been completed, new Directors will be chosen to oversee them. I trust you know that they must be treated as your equals.

That concludes this message. Forward the Program!

* * *

**Cut Scene**

**Grapes**

Preface: In an earlier draft of _The Omega Subject_, Apollyon sneaked onto Beacon campus and explored. He accidentally entered the dorms, almost got caught, and eventually found the cafeteria. It all goes downhill from there.

Apollyon heard the door open. He heard her say something as well, but didn't quite catch it. The door closed with a click. He turned towards the stairwell. He no longer wanted to be in this building. When he made it out, he saw there was plenty of time for him to continue exploring. He turned towards the large tower. _No._ He thought as he turned towards another large building. He walked towards it and saw it had large windows. He looked inside and saw table after table after table. He moved around the building until he found its doors. They were unlocked and—thankfully—pushes. He stepped in and saw that the room was filled to the brim with tables. He walked between them and eventually found a strange collection of rails and metal counters. He investigated, and found it was filled with food. Red, orange, yellow, green, purple, black, every color was present. He looked at an orange ball and picked it up in his teeth. It was slightly squishy. He bit down on it, and almost dropped the strange food. Juice squirted from his bite marks and got inside his mouth. He continued to chew it, however, finding its consistency enjoyable if its texture lackluster. It also tasted…quite nice, actually. It was sweet, unlike anything else he had eaten before.

When he tried swallowing it, however, he almost choked. He spit out the strange orange ball and saw that, surprisingly, some of the food was still in his mouth as the orange part was spat out. This part had all the flavor, he realized. He picked up the orange ball with his paws and studied it. The orange skin served as some sort of protection for the orange and white insides. However, he had no way of easily removing the orange outside. He tossed it aside and looked at the other strange foods. He picked up a string of green ones. He bit down and realized there was tree matter in it. He spat it back out, not liking the taste of the branches. Then, he realized it was in a similar predicament as the orange food. These branches allowed the green food to grow. He bit down and separated the green food from the branch, and saw it was delicious and sweet, much like the orange food. And, unlike the orange, the outer covering was edible. He strode out of the room, the branch in his mouth. Perhaps this wasn't a bad idea, after all. He returned to his clearing just as the sun was rising. However, strangely enough, a woman was there. She had long black hair and a red dress on. She turned to Apollyon and glared. He recognized her.

"Apollyon." She said, anger evident. "Please, explain why you're here at Beacon."

She looked at the food in his mouth.

"And…why you thought it was a good idea to sneak onto the campus and steal grapes."

Apollyon shrank back. He had almost forgotten Cinder had forbid him from coming here. He continued to chew on these grapes, as they were called, though.

They were just too delicious.

**/ / /**

"Well?" she asked.

_ My time here started with an assault on a village. After tearing it down and earning my pack, I went across the continent, destroying other villages. Then, I found myself in this forest._ He said. _With my pack, we found prey in the form of two huntresses: a Silver-Eyed and one with pure white hair and clothing. I fled, and found two new warriors as my prey and killed them. That was how I lost my pack._

He paused for a moment, savoring the grapes.

_ After that, almost two weeks passed before a group was sent down to kill me. I killed three of them, and the fourth escaped. This led to a group of nine, including the survivor, to come down and exact revenge._ He said before performing the pseudo-laugh. _The looks on their faces when I broke that Faunus' antlers. They fled after that, but not before I took down one of their Bullheads. After that, I explored the forest of red leaves, Forever Fall. There, I killed another student and ran into the silver-eyed huntress again. I left the forest and returned here._

The grapes were now, unfortunately, gone.

Afterward: Ultimately, the story took a far different direction than what originally happened. Apollyon never stayed around long enough in the present TOS timeline to explore Beacon. While it was fun writing this scene in the second version of TOS, I ultimately decided that Apollyon should be dealt with quicker than what was originally planned. THe original version of TOS had him around Beacon until halfway through volume two, basically. In this version, he didn't even reach the Forever Fall trip. I felt that it was better for Apollyon to leave Beacon earlier because, looking back on it, Ozpin would have personally stepped in before letting Apollyon last so long. I was also tempted to bring this scene over into the current version of TOS, as I did mention in a previous chapter that you should watch out for grapes, but the story sort of went its own way and the scene was scrapped. Crazy how that works out, isn't it?

* * *

**Lore**

**Excerpt from _The Essential Guide to Grimm Anatomy and P_****_hysiology_**

"Grimm are some of the most fascinating yet mysterious creatures on the planet of Remnant. Very few things were known for certain about them. Their origins were a mystery. How they worked was a mystery. That is, until today. I'm Doctor Whitaker Valkoinen, and through this guide, I will enlighten all of you reading on how exactly a Grimm works. Firstly, we will start on what humanity already knows about Grimm. The creatures of Grimm are effectively immortal, in that they cannot die of natural causes, and come in multiple different species. There are the lumbering Ursai and Ursa variants, yet there also the tiny Ravagers that inhabit the deserts of Vacuo. However, Grimm of all sizes and variations only want one thing: the complete and utter destruction of the human and Faunus races. While their motive for this is unknown, what is known is how they accomplish said objective. Grimm possess the ability to detect negative emotions generated by humans, Faunus, animals, and even other Grimm. They can also detect the imprints of negative emotions. Mountain Glenn, for example, is a Grimm activity hotspot, yet no humans are around. That is because the events that occurred there were so traumatic and negative that the emotions given off lingered within the stone and grass and concrete of the city. The cause for this effect is currently unknown, even at the time of writing this book, but it is fascinating nonetheless.

"Through experimentation, the inner workings of a Grimm have finally been unearthed. The different parts of a Grimm can generally be put under one of three categories: red matter, skin, and bone. Red matter is what constitutes most of a Grimm, and it is by far the most interesting substance discovered since Dust. It functions as a Grimm's internal skeleton, muscles, nervous system, vital organs, blood, and eyes. Without red matter, Grimm simply could not exist as they currently do. The most remarkable thing about red matter, however, is its power of regeneration. Grimm possess a limited form of regeneration that allows them to regrow small portions of their body that come to be damaged in battle. Remarkably, however, this red matter has its limits. If an appendage of some sort has been separated, said appendage will not grow back. Give it a cut or bullet wound, though, and it will regrow within two hours at minimum. The substance itself seems to also be what determines Grimm death and disintegration rates. While the origins of such happenings are unknown, red matter appears to be what determines how much dismemberment and damage a Grimm can take before it succumbs. Current testing has the Grimm surviving the loss of up to fifty percent of its red matter, or the loss of any limb excluding the head. Red matter is also used to properly age a Grimm, as size is a very inexact system. The darker the red matter of a Grimm, the older it is.

"The skin of a Grimm, while not as remarkable as the red matter, still plays a very important role in Grimm anatomy and physiology. It serves as a layer of protection for the red matter, allows the growing of fur, feathers, and bone, and is also the source of all smoke emitted from a Grimm upon skin of a Grimm is black, but can have its pigmentation altered through injections. The coloration of a Grimm's skin also reflects the coloration of a Grimm's fur, feathers, and other like structures. The last part of a general Grimm species is the bone. All variants of Grimm have some version of external armoring that closely resembles the bones found in normal creatures, though its makeup is unknown. Its purpose is twofold: offensive weaponry and defensive armoring. The bones of a Grimm can take the form of anything from spikes and claws to masks and plates. The bone of a Grimm is produced within its skin, though pieces of red matter can be found in certain plating as a form of decoration. The purpose for this is unknown, though it is theorized to make the Grimm appear more menacing. Another interesting facet of the bone structures found on a Grimm is that they are impossible to regenerate.

"However, there are certain Grimm which possess unique qualities and additional parts. Such Grimm include the..."

* * *

**Plans and Teasers**

Alright, so this is probably the only mildly interesting part of the intermission. So, firstly, I'm starting to get a little burned out on TOS. THE STORY IS NOT DYING! I REPEAT, IT IS NOT DYING! THERE WILL NOT BE AN INDEFINITE HIATUS!

Sorry, just wanted to clarify that. I'm going to take a break from writing TOS for a while and (hopefully) create a concrete path to follow. Because, in case you haven't been able to tell, this story has been flying by the seat of its oversized clown pants. That being said, I want your opinions. I'm going to list a few stories and their summaries, and I want to know if you guys want me to either A) Work on one of them for the time being, or B) Just take a break from writing in general. Here are your options.

**The Blackened Rose** \- Growing up, Ruby only ever wanted one thing: to be a huntress, just like her mother. But when Beacon falls and she is captured by Salem, her dreams are shattered. Through all of the pain she is forced through, she is turned into the very thing she swore to destroy. Join her as she learns to cope with her new fate, and watch as the red rose of Vale slowly withers to black.

-Description: Ruby is kidnapped shortly after the Fall of Beacon begins, and is taken to Salem. There, she is turned into a Grimm and forced to work for Salem. Throughout the story, she will attempt to break free of Salem's bindings. Will she be able to escape, or will she succumb to her evil desires? This killing thing doesn't actually seem too bad, once you get into it...and, humans taste _okay_, but it's not like she really needs to eat anymore. She now understands why, though, Grimm tend to kill people with their jaws or, at the very least, maim them postmortem. Maybe it isn't so bad being part Grimm after all...

**Designation Apollo** \- VDU-2466 was a standard model Atlesian Knight 200. It felt no pain, no emotion, and thought nothing as it and its squad were torn apart by Grimm. When it is granted a new life, however, and with it true conscience, how will his duty as a loyal defender of the planet be changed? As he journeys, he questions what it truly means to be human, and if it is possible for him to be one.

-Description: A group of AK-200s are sent on a mission to defend civilians in an overrun village while evacuation transports fly in. However, when things go sour and they are all destroyed, it seems to be the end. When a certain hunstman with a knack for fixing and building things, though, walks through and finds a mostly intact droid, how could he resist trying to fix it back up? Eventually, he is gifted true conscience and begins to question his lot in life. It'll probably be a more happy-go-lucky story than...pretty much everything on this list and TOS. Hm.

**Castra's Diner** \- Welcome to Castra's Diner, the only restaurant around that handles things a bit differently! I'm Castra, and I'll be your server tonight! So, how do you want it done? We could poison them, stab them with utensils, fake a political assassination, the options are endless! Oh, what's that? You didn't book the reservation? Well, then I'm afraid I'll have to make sure you don't squeak!

-Description: A new restaurant in Vale opens up, called Castra's Diner. Owned by the mysterious Castra Carmine, it seems innocent enough on the outside. However, for a small extra fee, people who reserve tables and bring in guests can request that their guest be murdered. The story will be a series of most likely unconnected one-shots that have different members of the RWBY cast killing each other here for various reasons. There will probably be a _lot_ of OOC, but then again, not a lot of people in RWBY are down for murder, so...yeah.

Don't forget, there is always the option for me to simply step back and take a break from posting in general. Hopefully, a roadmap can be finished for TOS so I actually know where I'm going with it. I've got vague plot points I want, but I don't really have anything between them. I hope you guys have enjoyed TOS up to now, and I hope you stick around to see it finish.

But, before I go, I want to say that your update feeds are about to be _bombarded_, as I'm about to edit around four chapters to fix some mistakes and change a bit of dialogue (shoutout to Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R, again). I want to thank you all for sticking around, and I can't wait to see what you guys voted. And, I want to apologize for all of the updates you're about to receive...

...Really, I am!


	16. An Announcement

Hello all! I've come here to make an announcement about a few things. A more condensed version of this can be found on my DeviantArt page, **USB-Meister**.

Firstly, I want to apologize for my rather long hiatus from FF. College took a lot of time and motivation out of me, and with it starting back up soon, I probably won't have another update after this for a while-assuming that this semester is just as busy as the last.

Secondly, my sister and fellow fanfiction writing loser **TheWeebTrashIsHere** is posting her first story to FF. More information about what it is can be found on my DA page, hers (**Waru-Katsu-Chan**), and also on her FF account. Long story short, it'll most likely appeal to all of you considering it too is RWBY related.

Third...ly? Thirdly? Sounds weird. Lastly. That'll work.

...

Lastly, in whatever spare time I've had, I've been brainstorming for _The Omega Subject _and have come to the conclusion that it may or may not be in line for a rewrite. And no, I'm not meaning like when I changed some dialogue (thanks **Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R**) in a recent chapter, I'm talking about posting an entirely new story with new content. I've had more time to develop the world of Remnant, and more specifically, the GCP, as shown in _TOS_. I'm not entirely sure when it will go up, assuming it does, as I'm still in the midst of writing it. I want it to look and feel different enough from the current _TOS_ to even warrant it being its own story. When it goes up, I'll make sure to update this story one last time to reflect that.

Thank you all for following the development of _TOS_, for Following, Favoriting, Reviewing, and even just spending the time to read it. This has been an amazing experience for myself and, hopefully, you as well. So, I'm going to give a quick and personal thank you to everyone who has Favorited, Followed, and Reviewed _TOS_.

* * *

**REVIEWERS - 25 Total Reviews Given**

_merendinoemiliano_ \- 05/16/19 - 15 Reviews

_Sm0keyPanda_ \- 05/27/29 - 2 Reviews

_Arclight001_ \- 07/03/19 - 1 Review

_Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R _\- 07/22/19 - 5 Reviews

_The Headless chicken_ \- 08/07/19 - 1 Review

_ServantofElShaddai13_ \- 12/26/19 - 1 Review

**FAVORITES - 26 Total Favorites Given**

_ARangeroftheOrder_ || _DimondDog_ \- 05/15/19

_Harbinger Of Destruction_ \- 05/17/19

_zngVnt_ \- 06/18/19

_AndyScull_ _Sgt. M00re_ \- 06/19/19

_UndeadDragonKing _|| _creepyboss_ \- 06/21/19

_nicholasoram1999_ \- 07/01/19

_Arrogant Comprehender_ \- 07/02/19

_Arclight001_ || _jwright1320_ \- 07/03/19

_Therjj_ \- 07/09/19

_Zane214252_ \- 07/12/19

_Hephaestus Grimalkin_ \- 07/23/19

_BusterBlue12_ || _IcyBloodDrake_ || _KingNate2001_ || _necronlord21_ \- 07/24/19

_Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R_ \- 07/29/19

_The Imperial Forerunner_ \- 07/30/19

_old666_ \- 07/31/19

_tigersj1102_ \- 08/01/19

_Wolf Fry_ \- 08/02/19

_erching_ \- 08/13/19

_Nonyaarb_ \- 12/25/19

**Followers - 40 Total Follows Given**

_ARangeroftheOrder_ || _DimondDog_ \- 05/15/19

_JcL107_ \- 05/16/19

_Cyan-Snake_ || _Harbinger Of Destruction_ || _The Imperial Forerunner_ \- 05/17/19

_Sm0keyPanda_ \- 05/26/19

_Mike0the0mic_ || _zngVnt_ \- 06/18/19

_AndyScull_ || Jasjoker || _lexlutor _\- 06/19/19

_UndeadDragonKing_ || _creepyboss_ \- 06/21/19

_nicholasoram1999_ \- 07/01/19

_Arrogant Comprehender_ || _Incinerator1_ \- 07/02/19

_Arclight001_ || _Pcykosis_ || _jwright1320_ \- 07/03/19

_Chronicler of Remnant_ \- 07/04/19

_Shadowarrior13_ \- 07/05/19

_Therjj_ \- 07/09/19

_Zane214252_ \- 07/12/19

_AWhiteLight_ \- 07/16/19

_legion9511_ \- 07/17/19

_Hephaestus Grimalkin_ \- 07/23/19

_IcyBloodDrake_ || _KingNate2001_ || _necronlord21_ \- 07/24/19

_Hugh-R_ \- 07/26/19

_old666_ \- 07/27/19

_Another S.T.A.L.K.E.R_ \- 07/29/19

_tigersj1102_ \- 08/01/19

_Wolf Fry_ \- 08/02/19

_Morrian_ || _The Ghost's Are Real_ \- 08/06/19

_erching_ \- 08/13/19

_Nonyaarb_ \- 12/25/19

_ServantofElShaddai13_ \- 12/26/19

**Miscellaneous Statistics**

-As of December 29, 2019, _The Omega Subject_ has been viewed 5,580 times.

-Excluding this announcement, it has 15 chapters, including 3 intermissions.

-Excluding this announcement, it is exactly 39,578 words. This announcement will push it past 40K!

-The first chapter was published May6, 2019.

* * *

Thank you, to each and every one of you. Without you, I very much doubt the story would ever have gotten as far as it has.

Ciao!

...

EDIT: And, of course, FF screwed up the nice formatting I had put in between names so I had to go in and fix them.

EDIT EDIT: And then I got the month of publishing wrong. Yippie.


	17. A Second Announcement

Hello all! This is an update on the TOS situation (and no, it's not bad news).

Firstly, I want to apologize if any took this to mean that the rewrite was ready for publishing. I understand that I said that one last update would come out saying that the rewrite was ready, but it's taking longer than I initially hoped.

Secondly, progress on the rewrite, while slow, is almost at the ready stage. One more chapter and a bit more plot outlining and the rewrite will be up! I'm so excited!

Thirdly... god, not this again. _Thirdly-_

No, no. Can't say it.

...

Just did research. Thirdly is grammatically correct. _Sigh._

In that case, _thirdly_, there is now an official TOS Fandom! It didn't take too long to set up, and it's still a work in progress, but hey, now it's easier for you guys to find specific info! Unfortunately, I don't really know how to direct you to it due to how FF treats links, so...

the-omega-subject

fandom

com

Put periods between those, then click on 'Main Page', and you should be good, operative word _should._ If that doesn't work out, let me know and I'll try and find another way to link it here. I want to give a huge thanks to my sister **TheWeebTrashIsHere** for helping me set it up, and I also suggest you look for the VNLA Fandom too, if you're at all interested in the story she's weaving. In the URL, simply replace 'the-omega-subject' with 'VNLA', and follow the same steps.

Lastly, since the last update, TOS has:

Gone from 25 Reviews to 27

Gone from 26 Favorites to 33

Gone from 40 Followers to 45

Gone from 5,580 Views to 7,278

Gone from v8 to v10

Thank you all so much for continuing to stay with TOS despite the lack of content recently! With the rewrite _finally_ getting close to release, I can fulfill the promise I made to myself when I first started writing TOS: I will make a story that not only am I proud of, but others can enjoy. It means so much to me that you guys took the time to View, Favorite, Follow, and Review. I hope that you'll all be there when TOS is finally finished. Until then, though, all I can do is give you my very best.

Ciao!


	18. The Third Announcement

The rewrite is published! It should show up on my profile any moment now! It's finally here!


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